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Marshall
Taylor |
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Born:
11/26/1878 |
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Died:
6/21/1932
2:30pm |
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Married: Daisy
Victoria Morris
3/21/1902 |
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Offspring:
Rita Sydney Taylor Brown
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born: 5/11/1904 |
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died:
5/2005
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Taylor is
survived by
several great
grandchildren |
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Before Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, and
the Williams Sisters there was another Black phenomenon
but few Blacks have ever heard of him. His name was
synonymous with speed. They called him
Major Taylor. Accounts of his feats stretched the globe. Still,
most history books have overlooked Major Taylor. As a tribute
to a cycling great, this is his story.
Major Taylor: Fastest Cyclist in the World |
Major Taylor - Paris 1908. Photos
courtesy
Major Taylor
Association |
Raised in the Indianapolis home of a
wealthy white family, that employed his father, Marshall
Walter Taylor was destined for greatness. At a young age
Taylor was given the gift of a bicycle from the family.
In his free time, Taylor would spend hours out back
teaching himself to ride the bicycle.
Day in and day out Taylor would practice balancing
perfectly on the bike. He soon became so skilled at the
art and took his riding a step further. Taylor began
teaching himself stunts. He would ride without hands,
stand on the bike seat, and position himself on the
bike’s top tube.
 Spectators
would often find Taylor cycling through town performing
his tricks. Crowds would gather around Taylor in awe of
his athleticism. Taylor had a knack for making cycling
look easy and fun.
Bike shop owner, Tom Hay, heard the crowds clamoring
around Taylor and offered the young sensation a job. He
offered to pay Taylor to perform his stunts each day in
front of Hay’s bike shop. The show would draw traffic
into the store and increase interest in cycling. Taylor
accepted Hay’s offer and was given a red military
uniform to wear.
The arrangement was a perfect match. Taylor got to do
what he enjoyed and the store got an increase in
revenue. Spectators later nicknamed the boy wonder
‘Major Taylor’ because of his crisp uniform.
Looking for new challenges, Taylor entered his first
bike race in 1892. He wins. Little does Taylor know that
this will be the first step in string of events that
will prove him the fastest cyclist in the world. |
- In 1895 Taylor is signed by a race manager,
former pro cyclist Louis Munger. The two move to
Worcester, Massachusetts where Munger
planned to open a bicycle factory. Taylor continues
to race promoting cycling along with Munger’s
bicycle company.
- In August 1896 Taylor travels back to Indy for a
race. There he unofficially breaks two world
records. One for paced and one for unpaced 1-mile
rides. Angered that a black could surmount such a
feat, Taylor gets banned the Indy race track and the
account of his race time gets buried.
- But Taylor keeps on trekking. Later that
December Taylor enters his first professional race –
a six day endurance race at New York’s Madison
Square Garden. He takes 8th place.
- Taylor hones his racing technique and continues
traveling the country and racing. Often a victim of
corrupt practices, other riders would physically
block or "pocket" Taylor in, attempting to keep him
from winning. Still, two years later in 1898 Taylor
holds 7 world records for speed. One record being
the 1-mile record in which Taylor completed one mile
in 1 minute 41.4 seconds.
- In August 1899 Taylor travels to Montreal,
Canada for the 1-Mile championship race, and wins.
At age 21 he becomes the second Black to be called
World Champion of any sport behind boxer George
Dixon’s 1891 title bout.
- Two months later Taylor beats his own 1-mile
record by 22 seconds, knocking the fastest 1-mile
down to 1 minute 19 seconds.
- In September 1900 Taylor is allowed to compete
in an arena he had been previously barred from
because of his skin, The National Championship
Series. He takes a series of races and becomes the American
sprint champion, the fastest cyclist in the U.S.
- Taylor and his team sets out to compete against
the top cyclists in the world. From March to June
1901 competes throughout Europe. Taylor beats every
European champion he races.
- In 1902 Taylor meets and marries Victoria
Morris, of New York. They later birth a daughter,
Rita Sydney Taylor (brown). Taylor continues
cycling. He races in Australia, the United States,
and New Zealand.
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Though disliked because of his skin, no
one could deny his speed. Taylor countered racism with a
quiet dignity. He saved his energy for the race track.
Throughout his life Taylor promoted clean living . He
often quoted principles to live by known as the ‘Dozen
Don’ts’
Taylor left the track in 1910, retiring at the age of
32. He later started several businesses. Each failed
depleting his savings.
Broke, estranged from his wife, and becoming ill, Taylor
penned his own autobiography titled ‘The Fastest Bicycle
Rider in the World.’ Some original copies are
still around today. They are valued at upwards of $500 a copy.
In 1930, a homeless Taylor drives himself to Chicago to
bunk at a YMCA shelter. He spends his remaining years
selling copies of his self-published book as a means of
income.
On June 21, 1932 Major Taylor dies at 53 inside the
charity ward of Chicago’s Cook County Hospital. He was
laid to rest in an unmarked grave.
Sixteen years later a group of minority cyclists, funded
by the Schwinn Bicycle Co., had Taylor’s body exhumed
and reburied at the Mount Glenwood Cemetery in Illinois.
Today the Major Taylor Association, Inc, a non-profit
corporation is looking to honor the life of Major Taylor
with the erection of a
two-sided statue
in Taylor’s honor.
The Major Taylor Association must raise $250,000 for the
project. As of September 2005 they’ve received $69,000
in donations. To donate contact the
Major Taylor
Association.
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