The Royale

Inspired by the life and story of boxer Jack Johnson, The Royale by Marco Ramirez is the story of a Black prizefighter navigating life in the United States in the early 20th century.

Jay “The Sport” Jackson is handsome, tough, headstrong, cocky, and undeniably the best Black heavyweight boxer during the end of the first decade of the 20th century. Jay grapples with the repercussions of crossing the color barrier after procuring a fight with Bixby, a white boxer, and the heavyweight champion of the world. As he prepares for his historic fight, he endeavors to conquer the label of merely a “Black boxer” and wrestles with the stigmas of living as a Black man during a racially volatile early 20th-century social ecosystem. He confronts violent, fiscal, political, and personal limitations as the reality and weight of racial tension in America becomes more transparent.