Major Taylor cycled to early fame
History often overlooks first African-American sports celebrity

by Bernie Scheffler, ne news editor

    When Americans talk about the integration of African-Americans into professional sports, the first name mentioned is usually Jackie Robinson.

   But the first black celebrity athlete, Marshall “Major” Taylor, actually preceded Robinson by nearly half a century.

   Paul Reiniger, former TCC student and amateur bicycle racer calls Major Taylor an inspiration.

   Reiniger has ridden on the Major Taylor Velodrome in Indianapolis, a track dedicated in Taylor’s honor.

   He says Taylor’s feats amaze him.

   “You can really wear yourself out sprinting around one of those tracks,” he said.

   Marshall W. Taylor earned the nickname Major as a youth because he was paid to wear a military uniform and perform bicycle stunts outside the Hay and Willits bike shop in Indianapolis, Ind.

   One of the shop’s proprietors, Tom Hay, recognized Taylor’s talent and introduced him to bicycle racing. Taylor won his first race in 1892 at age 13.

   Hay introduced Taylor to Louis “Birdie” Munger, a bicycle racer and manufacturer. Munger hired Taylor as a live-in butler and factory helper. Munger became a father figure to Taylor and, as his racing manager, stood up for Taylor in the face of widespread racism.

   In 1894, after Taylor had won nearly every race he entered, the League of American Wheelmen (LAW), then the governing body for the sport, banned blacks from amateur cycling.

   Taylor spent the next two years racing in black cycling clubs and black races.

   Munger and Taylor moved to Worcester, Mass., to escape the racism that permeated Indianapolis.

   In Indianapolis, Taylor had not been allowed to join the YMCA because of his skin color. The Worcester YMCA admitted him, and working out there helped him build upper body strength to match his powerful legs.

   Taylor returned to Indianapolis in 1896 to set unofficially two new track records in the paced and unpaced 1-mile races. His feat upset whites there, and he was banned from the track.

   His speed, however, proved he was ready to turn professional and did not go unnoticed. LAW’s racing board in New York, which had opposed banning blacks, agreed to register Taylor as a professional cyclist.

   Taylor competed fiercely on the national circuit in 1897, and the newspapers dubbed him “The Colored Cyclone” and “The Worcester Whirlwind.” White riders referred to him as “The Dusky Duster.”

   Taylor had to abandon his quest for sprint points champion, however, when Southern race promoters refused to allow him to race.

   White riders had gone from threatening Taylor to physically assaulting him. After a close race in Boston, the opponent pulled Taylor from his bike and choked him until he passed out. In Atlanta, Taylor received a note signed “White Riders,” warning him to leave town in 48 hours “or else.”

   Despite the obstacles, Major Taylor prevailed. He had become such an attraction that race promoters had to ignore their own prejudices to ensure good attendance at their events.

   Newspapers also began to take up Taylor’s cause. Fans complained about the blatant unfairness of Taylor’s situation, and he became a symbol.

   Taylor was America’s first black celebrity athlete. He earned over $35,000 in his best years, a huge amount for that time.

   Taylor was also the first black athlete ever to set a world record, and the second to be a world champion in any sport.

   In 1898, at age 19, Taylor set the one-mile record at 1 minute, 41.4 seconds, paced from a standing start. The next season on a track in Chicago, he dropped the record to 1:19, reaching 45.46 mph.

   That year, he also won the world championship one-mile race in Montreal, Canada.

   Some of the racial hostility had receded, but when Taylor bought a house in a wealthy Worcester neighborhood, concerned white residents tried to buy it back for $2,000 more than he had paid. In his autobiography, Taylor called it a fight “that ended with the enemy in possession of the field.”

   Taylor embraced religion after his mother’s death in 1898. For years he declined invitations to race in Europe because he refused to race on Sundays.

   Taylor finally signed a European contract in 1901. He was welcomed as a hero in France and proceeded to beat every European champion.

   He also raced for two years in Australia, adding to his international fame.

   He retired from racing in 1910 at age 32.

   Taylor followed his racing career with several failed business ventures. His lack of success in business and serious illness depleted his fortune in the 1920s.

   In 1930, Taylor headed to Chicago to try to sell copies of his self-published autobiography, The Fastest Bicycle Rider in the World.

   His health deteriorated, and he died in 1932 in the charity ward of a hospital at age 53.

   Nobody came to claim his body, so he was buried in an unmarked pauper’s grave.

   In 1948, a group of former professional cyclists had Taylor’s remains exhumed and buried in a more prominent part of the cemetery with a plaque that reads:

   “World’s champion bicycle racer who came up the hard way without hatred in his heart, an honest, courageous, and God-fearing, clean-living, gentlemanly athlete. A credit to his race who always gave out his best. Gone but not forgotten.”