Can’t white people also do bad things

That’s the rhetoric of Muhammad Ali in his interview with the BBC in 1971, and viral on Youtube, “Why everything is white?”.

In the world of politics, colonialism, war, exploitation, of course, it is very easy to find evidence of this rhetoric. Even in the world of sports it is evident that the crimes committed by white people are evident. Remember the treatment that Eddy “the sheik” Gardner experienced? Gardner, as one of the foremost marathon runners, along the race route experienced a hail of racial slurs and death threats from white men who were outraged at the sight of a black man beating a white competitor. In one case, a white farmer put a gun to Eddie’s back and followed him on horseback all day, challenging him to pass other white men. In another case, a mob surrounded Eddie’s coach car and threatened to set it on fire.

This unsportsmanlike and despicable story was shared by America’s First Black Sports Superstar Cycling champion Marshall Walter “Major” Taylor. The son of a successful poor man became an American professional cyclist.

He was 

born and raised in Indianapolis, where he worked in a bicycle shop. His prowess in cycling made the shop owner sympathize, Taylor was hired to perform outside the store in military uniform, since then he was nicknamed “Major”.

Taylor turned professional in 1896, at the age of 18, participating in various track events including the six day race. He turned his focus to sprint events in 1897, competing on the national racing circuit, winning many races and gaining popularity in the public eye. In 1898 and 1899, he set multiple world records in race distances ranging from a quarter mile (0.4 km) to two miles (3.2 km).

Taylor won the 1-mile sprint event at the 1899 world track championships to become the first African-American to reach the level of world cycling champion and the second black athlete to win a world championship, namely Canadian boxer George Dixon. Taylor also won the national sprint in 1899 and 1900. He was active in racing in the US, Europe and Australasia from 1901 to 1904, beating the best in the world.

Throughout her career she has challenged the racial prejudices she has encountered on and off the track and has been a pioneering role model for other athletes who face racial discrimination. Some local track owners fear that other cyclists will refuse to compete if Taylor is present for the bike race and bans him from their track. In 1893, for example, after 15-year-old Taylor beat an amateur track record by a mile, he was “shouted” and then barred from following in his footsteps.

Taylor joined the See-Saw Cycling Club, formed by black Indianapolis cyclists who were unable to join the local all-white Zig-Zag Cycling Club.

Major Taylor won his first significant cycling competition on June 30, 1895, when he became the only racer to complete a grueling 75-mile (121 km) road race near his hometown of Indianapolis. During the race Taylor received threats from his white competitor, who did not know he had entered the event until the start of the race. A few days later, on July 4, 1895, Taylor won a ten-mile road race in Indianapolis that qualified him to compete in the national championship for black racers in Chicago. Later that summer, he won the ten-mile championship race in Chicago by ten lengths and set a new record for black cyclists.

As Taylor rose to fame as an amateur and a professional, he did not escape racial segregation. In 1894, LAW changed its rules to exclude blacks from membership; However, it still allowed them to compete in the race. Although Taylor’s cycling achievements are highly admired abroad, particularly in France, his career is still limited by racism, particularly in the US South, where some local promoters do not allow Taylor to compete with white cyclists. Several restaurants and hotels also refused to serve him or provide him with lodging.

Taylor asserts in his autobiography that the leading cyclists of his time often teamed up to beat him, as the Butler brothers (Nat and Tom) alleged in the one-mile world championship race in Montreal in 1899. At the LAW race in Boston, shortly after Taylor won the championship. world, he accused the entire field including Tom Cooper and Eddie Bald, among other things for violating it. Taylor complained after the incident that she had been “hit, pushed and elbowed until I was put on trial.” Race promoter William A. Brady, who was also Taylor’s manager, punished other riders for their “abusive treatment” of Taylor during the race.

While some of Taylor’s fellow racers refused to compete with him, others used intimidation, verbal insults and threats to physically harm him. While racing in Savannah, Georgia in the Winter of 1898, he received a written threat that said “Cleanse yourself if you value your life”; the previous day Taylor had challenged three riders together to a race after one of them said they “don’t race niggers.” Taylor remembers that icy water had been thrown at him during the race and spikes were scattered in front of him. wheel. Taylor further stated in his autobiography that he had been elbowed and “bagged” (boxed) by other riders to prevent him from running to the front of the herd, a tactic in which he was very successful.

Taylor’s competitors also tried to hurt him. One incident occurred after the Massachusetts Open one-mile race at Taunton on September 23, 1897; late in the race, William Becker, who finished third behind Taylor in second place, tackled Taylor on the race track and strangled him unconscious. Becker, who claimed that Taylor had packed him during the race, was suspended while the incident was being investigated. Becker received a $50 fine as punishment for his actions, but was reinstated and allowed to continue racing.

In another incident, which occurred in February 1904, while Taylor was competing in Australia, he was seriously injured on the final lap of the race when fellow competitor Iver Lawson swerved his bicycle towards Taylor and collided with his front wheel. Taylor fell and lay unconscious on the track before he was taken to a local hospital and then made a full recovery. Lawson was suspended from racing anywhere in the world for one year as a result of his actions.

Taylor explained that he included details of this incident in his autobiography, along with his comments on his experiences, to serve as an inspiration to other African-American athletes trying to overcome racial prejudice and discriminatory treatment in sport. Taylor cited the exhaustion and physical and mental strain caused by the racial prejudice he experienced on and off the track as his reasons for retiring from competitive cycling in 1910.

He suggested that individuals “practice clean living, fair play and good sportsmanship” and develop their best talents with strong character, significant willpower, and “physical courage.” Despite many odds, Taylor rose to the top of the sport and became “one of the dominant athletes of his time.”

Although he retired as a wealthy man, it wasn’t long before Taylor’s fortunes turned south. He lost large sums of money in failed investments in new and better car tires, and he struggled to find a reliable source of income.

In 1929, Taylor self-published his autobiography, The World’s Fastest Cyclist, but by that time he had been alienated from his wife and daughter and forced to sell his house. Worse, there wasn’t much of a market for his book, due to the glory days of American cycling.

Taylor spent his last days penniless, at the Chicago YMCA. He died in June 1932 on the charity ward of Cook County Hospital, and was buried in an unmarked grave at Mount Glenwood Cemetery.

But at the request of several colleagues to give the pioneer athlete a more proper burial, bicycle manufacturer Frank Schwinn paid for Taylor’s body to be exhumed and moved to a more prominent part of the cemetery in 1948.

In recent years, Taylor has received more awards for his achievements through the bicycle club named in his honor and the dedication of a statue in his adopted hometown of Worcester.

Life is a struggle, fight well.

source : wikipedia, biography, cascade

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