Battle Royal is a short story written by Ralph Ellison. It was originally published in Ellison's collection of short stories, Invisible Man, in 1952. The story is narrated by an unnamed African American man living in the Southern United States during the late 19th century. He tells the story of his experience participating in a battle royal" – a brutal, no-holds-barred brawl between young black men – at the behest of local white men. The story is widely considered to be a commentary on the plight of African Americans in a society that is both racially and economically stratified. Ellison himself said that the story was meant to be "an indictment of America's failure to fulfill its democratic promise.""