INQUIRER Sports

WASHINGTON?Sen. John McCain on Friday pressed President Barack Obama to give a posthumous pardon to Jack Johnson, the black heavyweight boxing champion imprisoned nearly a century ago because of his romantic ties with a white woman.

McCain and Rep. Peter King noted in a letter to Obama that both houses of Congress this summer passed their resolution urging a pardon. After the vote, the lawmakers wrote to Obama in August asking him to issue the pardon.

?Regrettably, we have not received a response from you or any member of your administration,? they wrote in Friday?s letter, adding they hoped that Obama would be eager to ?right this wrong and erase an act of racism that sent an American citizen to prison.?

The White House declined to comment on the letter.

Johnson became the first black heavyweight champion on Dec. 26, 1908. Johnson won the title after police in Australia stopped his 14-round match against the severely battered Canadian world champion, Tommy Burns.

That led to a search for a ?Great White Hope? who could beat Johnson. Two years later, Jim Jeffries, the American world titleholder Johnson had tried for years to fight, came out of retirement but lost a match, resulting in deadly riots.

Johnson was convicted in 1913 of violating the Mann Act, which made it illegal to transport women across state lines for immoral purposes. He fled the country after his conviction, but agreed years later to return and serve a 10-month jail sentence.

McCain and King?both of whom have done their share of amateur boxing?pushed similar resolutions in recent years but only this year were able to get it through both chambers of Congress. AP