Tony Todd to play Jack Johnson in “Ghost in the House”

Introducing first in the black corner, weighing in at 205 pounds, hailing from Galveston, Texas – they call him the Galveston Giant – it’s Jack Johnson.

And now in the white corner, weighing in at 225 pounds and hailing from Carroll, Ohio, James “The Boilermaker” Jeffries.

When Johnson boxed Jeffries for the “fight of the century” in 1910, he was fighting not only a man, but racial prejudice and discrimination. After 15 gruelling rounds, the latter’s corner threw in the towel, meaning the white champion had been defeated, triggering deadly race riots across the United States.

“Ghost in the House: The Life and Times of Jack Johnson,” premiering in Schoenberg Hall Friday, is a play which tracks Johnson’s life, beginning at the end with the car accident which claimed it.

As he slips into a coma, the play features a series of flashbacks from Johnson’s mind. Frank Megna, one of the play’s co-writers, said the audience acts as a jury, evaluating Johnson’s life and passing judgement on where he should be placed in the afterlife.

“Ghost in the House” will be presented in conjunction with the UCLA Black Alumni Association, and is co-produced by UCLA alumnus Raymond Bell. For Bell, Johnson was a man who brought great change to the United States by bringing attention to its dire racial situation.

“I think of all the people we’ve had at UCLA – Arthur Ashe, Ralph Bunche, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jackie Robinson – they’re all great contributors to this country, but none more so than Jack Johnson,” Bell said.

Whereas most white boxers of the time picked up their trade in gyms with professional coaching, Johnson learned how to fight in bare-knuckle street fights at nine years old. He was forced to take part in battles royal, which actor Tony Todd described as fights in which little kids, mostly colored, would be blindfolded and put in a ring.

“They would just beat on each other until there was only one boy standing. It’s part of the unspoken history of America,” Todd said. “(In) these fights Johnson developed a second sight for which way a punch was coming from.”

Todd said his character, Johnson, was exiled to Europe for seven years because of racial stigma and perceived humiliation in the white population after his victory over Jeffries. In 1912, Johnson was convicted for violating the Mann Act under which it was illegal to transport women across state lines for immoral purposes.

“That law was created for him in the first place, because he was hanging out with white women, and he wasn’t supposed to,” Todd said.

Johnson toured around the continent, becoming a bullfighter in Barcelona, singing in the music halls of England with his wife and spying on German coastal fortifications in World War I. Todd described him as a self-educated, infamous Lothario with a thirst, wherever he went, to satisfy his natural curiosity.

Johnson’s boxing style has been much replicated over the years, Megna said. Most notably it has influenced Mohammed Ali, a friend of Johnson’s who Megna said learned his famous anchor punch from.

Johnson’s story was so inspirational to Ali, Megna said, that when he was forgetting the cause he was fighting for, his coach would shout to him, “Ghost in the house champ, ghost in the house.” His coach’s words reminded Ali that Johnson’s ghost was present, helping him combat the same racial prejudice he endured.

Todd said Johnson wasn’t originally a political man; however, when deadly race riots broke out after his victory over Jeffries, Johnson realized he was part of a larger social struggle. One particular incident in New York City, where a mob of angry whites burned down a colored orphanage, blocking the doors and windows so nobody could get out, was particularly shocking for Johnson.

“He couldn’t believe that his hands had caused people to die or be named or hurt,” Todd said. “It changed him.”

For Todd, playing Johnson is the part of a lifetime, allowing him to reflect on both his life and the mirroring of racial tension in America then and now. Todd said premiering “Ghost in the House” on a racially diverse campus like UCLA is important to spreading the message of equity Johnson stood for.

“It’s a role that’s fully expressive, that’s 360 degrees, that’s filled with truth which is not easily presented, you have to dig deep to find it and you find something out about yourself and why we’re here in the first place,” Todd said. “Playing Jack Johnson is one of those moments.”