Major Taylor
Taylor circa 1900
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| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Nickname | Major The Worcester Whirlwind The Black Cyclone |
| Born |
26 November 1878 Indiana |
| Died | 28 June 1932 (aged 53) Chicago, Illinois |
| Team information | |
| Discipline | Track |
| Role | Rider |
| Rider type | Sprinter |
| Amateur team(s) | |
| 1895 | Albion Cycling Club |
| Professional team(s) | |
| 1896 | Worcester Cycle Manufacturing Company |
| 1899 | E. C. Stearns Bicycle Agency |
| Major wins | |
| 1896 Madison Square Garden he lapped the entire field during the half-mile race 1896 League of American Wheelmen one mile race 1899 - World Champion - One mile |
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Marshall Walter "Major" Taylor (November 26, 1878 – June 21, 1932) was an American cyclist who won the world 1-mile (1.6 km) track cycling championship in 1899 after setting numerous world records and overcoming racial discrimination. Taylor was the first African-American cyclist to achieve the level of world champion and only the second black man to win a world championship in any sport, after Canadian boxer George Dixon.
Taylor was the son of Gilbert Taylor, a Civil War veteran, and Saphronia Kelter, who had migrated from Louisville, Kentucky, with their large family to a farm in rural Indiana. He was one of eight children: five girls and three boys. Taylor's father was employed in the household of a wealthy Indianapolis family, the Southards, as a coachman, where Taylor was also raised and educated. When Taylor was a child, his father would bring him to work. The employer had a son, Dan Southard, who was the same age and the two boys became close friends. Taylor later moved in with the family and was able to live a more advantaged life than his parents could provide.
This period of living and learning at the Southard house lasted from the time he was eight until he was twelve, when the Southards moved to Chicago and Taylor "was soon thrust into the real world."
At the age of twelve Taylor received his first bicycle from the Southards and became such an expert trick rider that a local bike shop owner, Tom Hay, hired him to stage exhibitions and perform cycling stunts outside his bicycle shop. The name of the shop was Hay and Willits. The compensation was $6 a week, plus a free bike worth $35. Taylor performed the stunts wearing a soldier's uniform, hence the nickname "Major."
In 1891, when he was thirteen, Taylor won his first race, an amateur event in Indianapolis. Two years later, in 1893, when Taylor was age fifteen, he beat the 1-mile (1.6 km) amateur track record where he was "hooted" and then barred from the track because of his color.
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