Jack Johnson, Heavyweight Champion of the World
The inspiring figure who inspired Marco Ramirez’s THE ROYALE
“My life, almost from its very start, has been filled with tragedy and romance, failure and success, poverty and wealth, misery and happiness,” wrote Jack Johnson in his autobiography, Jack Johnson the Man. “The story of my life I have led, may therefore not only contain some interest if told for its own sake, but may also shed some light on the life of our times.” In Marco Ramirez’s The Royale — onstage at Lantern Theater Company now through December 11, 2022 — Johnson’s story inspires the story of one man that does indeed shed light on his — and our — time.
The Royale’s Jay Jackson is loosely based on Jack Johnson, the first Black boxer to win the World Heavyweight Champion title, who was well known for his incredible athleticism and his charisma both in and out of the ring. Johnson was born in Texas in 1878, a year after the collapse of Reconstruction, to parents who were formerly enslaved. Of their nine children, five survived to adulthood. Johnson did not attend high school, opting instead to go to work to help support his family. By age 16, he left home, traveling to the Northeast, but before long he was back in Galveston, working in a gym and saving money to buy a proper set of boxing gloves.
Johnson’s first real fight was on the Galveston beach in 1895, when he was 17; he won the match and the $1.50 purse. Later that summer, he went four rounds with a professional boxer named Bob Thompson and earned $25 for his efforts. A passion was ignited; he left Galveston for Chicago to pursue more training and more lucrative fights, saying in Jack Johnson the Man that “there was nothing more for me to do in Galveston. The purses offered me were truly minimal — 10, 15 or 20 dollars at most. If I stayed there, all I’d have is debts for I had to pay one or two seconds and their wages absorbed the whole purse and sometimes more. So I decided to travel the world, to try to box from one coast to the other, and to attach myself to the training camp of a famous boxer.”
While in Chicago, he caught the eye of a promoter, who arranged a few fights for Johnson. But before long he was back in Galveston again, where a local boxing club brought in veteran white boxer Joe Choynski to fight Johnson and, they hoped, knock down his ego. While he did knock Johnson out, Choynski was impressed with the young boxer’s skill. They were both arrested for the illegal match; in the three weeks they were in jail together, they sparred, and Choynski was struck by Johnson’s agility, saying “A man who can move like you should never have to take a punch.” Neither man was ultimately indicted, and they were released — but only if they left town, immediately. Johnson headed to California, where he made a name for himself on the boxing circuit.
By 1903, Johnson had won the unofficial “Negro Heavyweight Championship,” but Jim Jeffries, a white boxer and reigning World Heavyweight Champion, refused to fight him, choosing instead to retire and live on an alfalfa farm. For the next five years, each successive champ also refused to fight Johnson, stating explicitly that they would fight anyone except for Black boxers. The unwritten color ban held firm until 1908, when then-champ Tommy Burns agreed to fight Johnson in Australia for $30,000. Johnson won in 14 rounds.
The press and many in white society went in desperate search of a “great white hope,” a term coined by Jack London — a boxer who could beat Johnson and return the title to the white race where they thought it belonged. Eventually, Jim Jeffries was persuaded to come out of retirement to fight Johnson. Jeffries had never even been knocked down in his entire career. But in Reno, Nevada, in front of 12,000 people, Johnson knocked Jeffries down three times. He beat Jeffries in 15 rounds, cementing his place as the World Heavyweight Champion. But the personal victory came with a heavy toll — Jeffries’ defeat sparked the worst spate of racist riots in years, leaving nearly two dozen Black people dead and hundreds injured across the country.
Johnson held the title until 1915, when he was knocked out by Jess Willard (or when he threw the fight, depending on which story you believe). The unwritten color ban was reinstated; it would be nearly 30 years before another Black boxer would win the title. But with or without the belt, Jack Johnson was also known for his larger-than-life personality and showmanship outside of the ring. He drove fast cars, capped his teeth in gold, owned a nightclub, and married several white women at a time when that was considered scandalous and, in some states, illegal. He taunted his opponents in the ring and flashed his wealth outside of it.
His refusal to shrink himself to fit into white America’s demands made him a hero to many and a target to many others. In 1913, Johnson and his future wife, Lucille Cameron, were traveling when he was arrested. He was convicted of violating the Mann Act — a law against taking women across state lines for “immoral purposes” — in a prosecution now widely seen as racially motivated. He evaded prison for seven years by living abroad before returning and serving his one-year sentence; he was posthumously pardoned in 2018.
In his autobiography, Johnson said “I realized that my victory in this event meant more than on any previous occasion. It wasn’t just the championship that was at stake: it was my own honor, and in a degree the honor of my own race. The ‘White Hope’ had failed.” In The Royale, Jay Jackson faces a similar fight: a victory would mean personal glory and maybe real social change. But the cost to him and to Black people across the country might be steep. It is a fight he must wage in the ring and outside of it, just as his real-life counterpart did throughout his life — and just as many still fight today.
More reading: “We want a good, clean fight”: The History of Boxing — The development of the sport at the center of The Royale
Lantern Theater Company’s Philadelphia premiere production of The Royale by Marco Ramirez is onstage November 10 through December 11, 2022, at St. Stephen’s Theater. Visit our website for tickets and information.
