The city doubled. There were horses and horse and buggy was was the travel there are street cars and elevatedres no subways but the cycle came along. Has been something that special specialized riders but safety bicycles came along and the mass started to ride. The bicycle became the most popular form of conveyance. People who had just relied on the slow moving horse and buggy world had a way to get around cleanly, fast, very efficient, and for a lot of people this was their own form of independence, around this time, for example, a woman who has writing about suffrage, wrote a biograph called how i learn to ride the biffle. So gives you a sense of the new world of the bicycle and the most popular sport at this time was cycling. Much more so than baseball, for example. If you wants to see fastmoving sport you went to one of the men bell dreams and there were white races and black dominated race but to the main races were dominated by white riders. Major taylor had been born in indianapolis, indiana. Left there because of the racism he faced and moved to worcesters, massachusetts so this major taylor when he was 15 years old and you can see he is a slight man. He hissing high when he was an doll was 57 in the 140s when he was a racer and wasnt bill for racing. A lot of the racers were 60, larger bodies but a man who ran a bicycling Manufacturing Company in indiana and took a liking to major taylor, took him under his wing and his name was birdie bunger and he say in marriage taylor something of himself. Yes, black man and this was a white man he had been the champion of the highwheeled bicycle era so he whats worlds fastest mans in early 1890s and then saw major taylor and he thought marriage major taylor had the makings of a great bicyclist temp had a friend and the family took him in and at the friend was from a wealthy white family and major taylor called him like basically a millionaires son. Her had a very from a very poor family but had a upbringing at well with another family that provided him bicycle and berniemonger took him to missouri. One people influential in his life was a man named arthur zimmerman. He was also a World Champion and taught major taylor about how to build your body, how to use nutrition to become a strong man. Arthur zimmerman write a book called points on training and major taylor devoured the become and learned good tips how to use food, how to use the gymnasium and tried to go to the ymca in nays and they said youre not welcome here because of the color of your skin and he learned but the monster prejudice. So Bernie Munger decided to leave with him, leave indiana, leave his company and moved the any company to worcester, massachusetts, and there major taylor was brought along and went to the web williams willia ymca and was woked. Bernie munger believed so strongly in major taylor that by 1896, after he had one some amateur races, took him to new york city wanted to enter him in the gratest race of the time. An inest testament how strongly Bernie Munger believed in major taylor. Its a very palatial type of building theyve they held the six, day race. Race around it for six days straight, an hour for rest but was an inhuman type of race. You can survive that you survived one of the most brutal sporting contests quizzed by devrieses by man. At the time the gatest sprinter in world was a man named eddy balder, or eddie cannonball because he could shoot in front of the competitors leak a ball from a cannon. He was a very handsome man, much bigger than major taylor and he envisioned himself as the star of the day. Before the word super star was used he was it. He has the greatest sprinter and paid to advertise products and making more than 10,000 a year. Came from Humble Beginnings and learned to ride a bicycle but working in his fathers butcher shop in buffalo and on a biffle he took the meat around to the neighborhood and add a lot of weight to his bicycle and great training to be a spring are because when the meat was taken off he could fly like a cannonball so he was a great sprinter and didnt know about major taylor but Bernie Munger decided this was the race that Merrill Taylor so shoober. A preliminary contest of a half mile before the great sixday race would again. So the half mile race was five laps around a noble. If you can imagine in Madison Square garden there are 10,000 dna thousand people there. Theres so much smoke from cigarettes, cigars, pipes, that you could barely see around the curvature of the track, one racer said. As they raise major taylor said there was so much grime and sneak that one after white ride hes looked like he could have been his brother, that covered with the grim from the arena. So, amidst this you can imagine trying to race in an atmospherey youre checking choking on mike. So the first preliminary match was a half mile sprint. Five laps around the oval. Againsted major taylor took his place, and Bernie Munger walked him tonight the starting line and 15,000 people are watching as a rare occurrence happening of a black man against a bunch of white racers. To put this in perspective this is demings of 1896 december of 18 96, months earlier was to decision of the Supreme Court and decided by a 71 ruling that separate but equal was fair accommodation. That wasnt fair of course to blacks but at the time a white dominated ruling class basically wanted to come up with a system that would institute segregation and that ruling in the middle of 1896 started to institutionalize the jim crow regulations that continued on. So six months after the case heres major taylor, 18 years old, and to his mind, his first professional race, all the pressure in world is on his shoulders not just for his own personal glory but in fact to hold up the standard for fish race. Her felt if he could succeed he would prove disprove the racist theories and thats what he wanted to do. Extraordinary pressure against the greatest sprinter in world. The starters pistol released, its cracks and they good raising around the oval. One lap two laps and so on, and incredibly as the crowd is it shouting major taylor believe he won at the race and throws up his hands and victory and the South Brooklyn club which trained him is yelling, theres one more lap to good, and yesterdayie san con ball darts her, major taylor hear is his team mates and realizes theres one more lap to do so he then shoot us out himself like a cannonball and incredibly wins that sprint, and his first professional race against the greatest of odds, in front of an incredible crowd and thinks champion sprinter. Thats an extraordinary accomplish. And then thats upthe preliminary. Next is the sixday race. So suddenly before this great crowd in new york city this greatest sporting arena of the day, major taylor is the talk of the city. Who is he, hours did husband young black man beat all the best white sprinter and then there was a,day race that everybody want to said. There were newspaper writers around the world. There was no radio or tv, and there were ten newspapers in at the city, papers from around the world covering the race and were write bought major taylor, Marshal Walter major taylor, how is he able to do this and the stickday race is about to start. As major taylor gets up to start the sixday race the see this man by the starter res pistol is no other than eds eddy ball and he wont risk his health in a sixday race but major tail had no choice. He had to promise he would race all six days. Initially the promoters who ran baseball teams that werent as profitable, decided why not initially allow major taylor because of his skin color. Eventually he was able to say to them race, a lot of peep want to see move. The promoter said this is exact quote he shining the shoes of the white gentlemen on fifth avenue and major taylor said no, i should be on the racetrack. And promoters realized this was a ray to attract people. The is would be black versus white ask thats how the race was promoted. Sixday race went up. Gelledie eddy ball was in the there but the best racers in the the world had comp. When he within around the track they played anthem but for major taylor they didnt have the National Anthem tv the United States and the band struck are dixie the unofficial anthem of to confederacy. Major taylor paid no mind and the National Anthem of the other riders were played and they all lined up and for six days incredibly they went around and around, he would take an hour break here or there, Bernie Munger would his manage were say you have had an hour, it was actually 15 rests. Bernie munger was pushing him so well and major taylor balm had hallucinations and said theres a mon running after me with a knife in his handsment just imagine six days. It was inhumane. Extraordinarily difficult. After six days many riders had dropped out. Major taylor survived and raised raced all six days, 1700miles and came in eight place that was bass a great victory was a great victory. Nobody expected him to complete the race. Now the combination of having him won the sprint against eddie ball and to survive the six i day racemate made hem an international figure. The talk of the city and cycling was the most popular sport in the country at that time. Look at the sports pages from the time you see story after story but cycling and major taylor is prominent in many of the stories. As major taylor started racing more and more, a lot of the white racers did not want to face him and knew how good he could be and was becoming better and better as he learned to race against the best competition. So he would start to be care could toured by others. This was a team , the integrated boston cycling team. Some people believe this is one of the first integrated sports teams in the country on a professional basis. This a year after the Madison Square garden race. Theres major taylor, small man compared to look how big the other guys are, on this team. Major taylor was not initially expected to do so well. He just had an extraordinary capability, was an incredibly smart rider. Two of the people on the team are brother, the embrace major taylor, have to four white men were immigrants so a very interesting time, 1897. Think how many years that was before Jackie Robinson broke the color bottom line in Major League Baseball and major taylor was the First American sports hero because the broke the barriers well before jack johnson was the world heavyweight boxing champion in 1908. And before jessie owens was in the olympics in berlin and before Jackie Robinson broke the major league color barrier in 1947. If all those men were here today they would say major taylor behaviored the wade. And jackson who won the world boxing championship 1980. One of the early least black sports here us he initially was a cyclist and wanted to emulate major taylor. He did. Participate in cycling and he was injured and decided he wanted to take part in a less dangerous sport, boxing. It was very dangerous sport. With a pacing machine ahead of you, the speeds could be 40 Miles Per Hour or more. This a picture of major taylor as the white racers trade to basically get him to not participate. They said youre not allowed for jim crow reasons. Tried to been him. He adopted scientific methods as to how to use body to degree he would be great athlete. He later said if im ounce over my weight, i give up edge. He adopted science of the day, at the time theory was that blacks were inferior in body and in mind and so forth, all of it untrue but that was the theory of the day, Scientific Study that was done and the gentleman who did the study that i write about in the book, included basically that has nothing to do with how you are raised, how you train, that determines who you are, no inherent deficiency. As he developed his body this is what he looked like when he was in conditions, extraordinary transformation from the 57 boy he had been, incredibly disciplined training in autobiography, the picture he puts in perfect condition, there really was nobody else in all of cycling who is as dedicated to the training, consume a lot of protein, this was a time in which people had fatty food, he was very much in protein, mass quantities of eggs, he was disciplined in what he ate and what he did. As i mention, they would take advantage of this. 1898, black versus white, race in massachusetts and you can see there if you can, 1,500, thats a massive amount of money in 1998, average income is a few hundred dollars annual income so winning this race was extraordinary amount, 30 miles, half mile. 40mile race, he didnt win this one, eddy was a great sprinter himself and as cycling developed in late 1890s they would use pacers, they would get ahead and go behind the group of pacers. You could go faster and faster, eventually precursor of motorcycle, they would put 2 or 3 seats, load it up with engines, noisy and you ride behind that to go faster and faster and in that case you could reach speeds of 40 Miles Per Hour which was at the time one story said this was the fastest a human had ever gone and so this was people came out to see, again, in the days before all the racing this was big attraction, thousands of thousands of people, eddy mcduffy was a pioneer, he set world record of speed going behind motorized pacing machine. Sponsors knew to get world record they had to go faster hand eddy mcduffy. So to do that they came here to chicago, there was a park track and tracks which you could compete, manager was a great engineer, very fastpacing machine. He would ride it himself and in chicago they made 6 amendments to try to beat eddy mcduffys world record. They were not successful. Tried in concrete track and they tried several times and finally riding the pacing machine, major taylor set record for speed. 1899 the race occurred, major taylor could be declared, as the title of the book says world east best man. In july of 1899, here is the story, in fact, from the time period, if you could read it, breaks all record, after breaking the record here in chicago, major taylor invite today participate in World Championships which were north of the border in canada, held in montreal, some of the white competitors, they didnt want to be seen in the same track and they refused to go, many other racers on team they went from around gathered to compete and no racist stories about him, held as a hero, everyone knew he held record and many stories about him. Largest crowd to see match to see cycling match with major being attractions from around the world. Judge had ruled no, the other person in the race who was second was first, people in the crowds saying, thats not true, someone said everyone thinks that major thinks won the race stand up, the judge ruled that major taylor came in second. A lot of people thought it was unfair. Another race yet to come, in that race major taylor faced butler brothers and others and in that race major taylor was victorious, World Championship and subtitle first americas black hero. They played dixie. In canada where he won World Championship, major taylor for the first time heard the star spangled banner play for him and when i heard the National Anthem play for me in canada i never felt more american than i did on that day and shows you how strongly major taylor felt about being american and black american and great pride in country, he knew that there was a lot of racist people that we wanted to deny him, great friends like munger who helped him get there in the first place. He knew that they were good people and bad people but the reality was when that anthem was played for him in canada it was a very, very emotional moment to be declared World Champion and hear the National Anthem play and how grateful he was for that moment, paving the way. There were at the time many hundreds of stories around the world written about him because the International Press in montreal, cycling was great support and so many members of the media had come to write about this. Major taylor was courted by a lot of french promoters. Major taylor said i would go except for sundays, for religious reasons. Finally they gave in, okay, theres no one else in america we want more to race in france than you major taylor, we will give you the ban on sundays, just come and race, he got a 10,000dollar contract, plus winning and he agreed to go to paris, he got married to a woman named daisy, this is daisy on the left there, major taylor in the middle, thats their daughter sidney who was later born when they went to australia. She was 96 years old, in 2001, she had seen father race in paris, remember that. Thought that was extraordinary moment, had a chance years ago to talk to sidney which i used in the book. Major taylor became as i say super star, here he is, typical, cover of the magazine, it was written about in publications in cover stories around the world, one of the most chronicled africanamerican man, of his time, widely talked about, fitness, wondered why such racism existed in america dpifn great skills, came to france, best racer in 1901. Pictures drawn, photography existed at the time but new era in photography and he became widely photographed by some of the best photographers in all of france, one of the greatest crowds to see cycling match in are paris history. Major taylor was defeated. Wasnt quite ready for strategy and techniques, demanded a rematch. This was the largest race in paris as far as the attention, the number of spectators, quite extraordinary, second match, to, again, declared the worlds best man, so quite extraordinary, became the raced all over europe and quite strayed. I want to leave time for questions and i want to jump ahead about twothirds or more of majors story, its all written about in the book year after year becomes champion all around europe, goes to australia twice, few americans had gone to australia, much less black americans. Did extraordinary well. He returned and wanted to become executive in automobile business as autos were taking over the bicycle and had young child, he decided he wanted to retire and go to massachusetts where he had a hom