The White House refuses to stipulate whether President Obama will issue a posthumous pardon for Jack Johnson, the African-American boxing champion convicted in 1913 for dating a white woman, a “crime against nature,” as the US government prosecutors argued at the time.

Johnson, the first African-American to win the heavyweight title, was convicted for violating the 'Mann Act,' which outlawed the transportation of women across state lines for "immoral" purposes.

Johnson was first arrested for breaking the Mann Act in 1912, four years after winning the heavyweight crown. That case fell apart, but investigators then charged him with a similar offense involving a woman he had dated years earlier.

An all-white jury convicted Johnson in less than two hours.

Senator John McCain and Representative Peter King, both republicans with history of their own in racism and bias against African Americans, introduced resolutions calling for a presidential pardon in 2005 and last year, CNN reported.

Johnson served 10 months in prison on charges "brought forward clearly to keep him away from the boxing ring, where he continued to defeat his white opponents," McCain said.

"The Jack Johnson case is an ignominious stain on our nation's history," he said on the Senate floor in the spring. "Rectifying this injustice is long overdue," McCain boosted.

McCain's seemingly heroic remarks defending the rights of a dead African American came in the face of his long history of voting against African American rights and welfare. For instance, McCain is well known for being among many republicans that voted against the federal holiday for Martin Luther King Jr., a major African American leader who was assassinated for his civil rights campaigns.

It is also quite questionable why, after all these years, an African American president is asked to right a long overdue wrong. Is it because no white US president is up to such task?

VA/MB