The Great White Hope, a play written in 1967 and adapted for the silver screen in 1970, starred James Earl Jones in the lead role on Broadway. Jones won a Tony Award for Best Actor. It's all about white vs. black and the white struggle to remain at the top. Due to the civil rights battles of the late 1960s, The Great White Hope was seen as an extension of racial struggle for equality.

Based on the story of the black boxing champion, Jack Johnson, The Great White Hope chronicles the racial prejudice that led to the pursuit of a "great white hope'' to defeat him.

The black boxer, Johnson, won the World Boxing Championship in 1908. Johnson's win initiated the strident quest, on behalf of white promoters, for a "Great White Hope" to defeat Johnson. James Jeffries, a white boxer, was the first "white hope" who was tapped to challenge the champion in 1910. That particular fight had become a hotbed of racial tension with the black-on-white fight being controversial among whites during that era. The fight's promoters even incited the all-white crowd to chant "kill the nigger".

Much to the promoter's frustration, the African-American, Johnson, kept his title when he won that white-on-black fight in 1910. The search for a "white hope" was back on.

Johnson was married three times. All of his wives were white, a fact that caused considerable controversy at the time. He was arrested multiple times on trumped up charges, all relating to his relationships with white women. He was convicted by an all-white jury in June 1913. He was sentenced to a year and a day in prison. This intensified the public sentiment among whites to dethrone the champion with a white successor.

Despite his legal frustrations, Johnson remained the champ another until 1915. He lost his world title when he was defeated finally by the winning "great white hope" - a white man, Jess Willard, from Kansas.

Kill the nigger.

White Kansan defeats black leader.

Great white hope.

Pretty obvious themes.

What's Lynn Jenkins' connection to this story? Was she ignorant of this history when she used the euphemism? It's highly unlikely. Here's why - the "great white hope" was not only from Kansas, but Jess Willard was from a town near where Rep. Jenkins grew up. Kansan towns always perpetuate the history about any notable people from their locales. Anybody who's ever lived in a small town in the Midwest knows this. Willard, the white boxer, was a resident of St. Clere, KS, which is a mere 27 miles from Rep. Jenkins' hometown of Holton, KS and in the same congressional district she now represents in Congress.

Was Rep. Lynn Jenkins showing her natural racist inclination? She said later, "That was not the intent in any way, shape or form." She didn't mean it as a hit below the belt for African-Americans? Huh?

Or, did she just think that she wouldn't get caught? Did she think that African-Americans wouldn't find out that she ever said such a thing? Because, after all, even for a white congresswoman in a white meeting, it's still politically incorrect to get caught being racist, at least publicly. Or - is it?

At this point, Rep. Jenkins is all over the public relations ring, working hard to avoid the questions from the press with some of her not-so-fancy foot work. She's coming back out swinging, at the public, at the media - with odd jabs, ones not so loaded with racial innuendo.

Her come back doesn't seem to be working too well for her, yet. I think I know why.

It's because, in the end, a person's character is discoverable.

Untruths wash away, eventually. Manipulators and fakes always get found out.

Integrity shows itself consistently and reliably, or not at all. Our words and our actions always matter.

I believe that she didn't mean to lead with her chin. She didn't mean to let herself be so exposed to this much criticism. OK. We get that.

But, in boxing, once you swing, it counts. When you make contact, you have your opponent's attention. Everything changes. And the referee takes note of it.

You can't say you didn't mean to hit the other guy below the belt or head-butt him.

A headbutt is a strike with the head, typically involving the use of robust parts of the cranium as areas of impact. Effective headbutting revolves around striking a sensitive area with a less sensitive area, such as striking the nose of an opponent with the forehead. It is known as a risky maneuver: a misplaced headbutt can cause more damage to the person delivering the headbutt than to the person receiving it.

You can't take it back.

There's no mistaking what the congresswoman said in Hiawatha.