Major - Todd Balf's Story of America's First Black Sports Hero
Written: May 02 '08 (Updated May 02 '08)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: It is a compelling look at America's first cycling hero
Cons: Unfortunately, Major Taylor does not receive the recognition that he's due
The Bottom Line: Major Taylor is a part of American history that far too few people know about. Rectify the error by reading Major.
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| teamfreak16's Full Review: Todd Balf - Major: A Black Athlete, a White Era, a... |
It's quiz time! Quickly, without looking it up: who was America's first cycling hero? If you answered Lance Armstrong, you've only been paying attention since 1999, so please go to the back of the classroom. For those of you that answered either Greg Lemond or Andy Hampsten, you're a little warmer, but still way off. What many people fail to realize is that there was a time - the 1890's to the early 1900's - that bicycle racing was the most popular spectator sport in the United States, let alone in Europe. Contained bicycle-specific racetracks called velodromes were seemingly in every city worth its salt (now, only a handful or two exist,) and thousands packed the stands nightly to watch daring men battle it out on two-wheeled steeds. At the center of it all was a young black man named Marshall "Major" Taylor, who would employ his racing prowess to the tune of seven world records, and both a world and national championship. In Major: A Black Athlete, A White Era, and the Fight to be the World's Fastest Human Being, Todd Balf (The Last River, The Darkest Jungle) tells Taylor's oft-forgotten tale.
Balf chronicles Taylor's ascencion from a descendent of slavery to his era's greatest cyclist. As Balf tells Taylor's story, he also intertwines the tales of three other men that were crucial to Major Taylor's success. In a nation rife with racial prejudices and bigotry - this was only spitting distance after the Civil War, after all - Taylor lucked into getting discovered by a white man named Birdie Munger, who would become Taylor's mentor and coach. Munger was raised in one of the few racially diverse areas of the country at the time, and saw in Taylor not a black man, but a talent that he could mold into a champion. Taylor also benefited from the promotional talents of another white man, Billy Brady, a theatrical showman whose flair for the dramatic helped Taylor to break the color barrier in a then whites-only race circuit. And playing perhaps the most pivotal role was Floyd McFarland, Taylor's career-long rival - a blatantly racist, dirty riding schemer that wasn't above fixing the outcome of a race. As the four men's lives connect, Balf outlines Taylor's struggles to ride and live cleanly, piously, and as a champion for his fellow black citizens.
Dubbed "Major" due to a military-style uniform he wore while performing bicycle stunts in front of a bike shop he worked at as a teen, Marshall Taylor was the son of former Kentucky slaves. His father, Gilbert, had fought in the Union Army during the Civil War. However, because he'd never received paperwork declaring him a freed slave, Gilbert's military service was unofficial (he basically didn't exist because of the lack of official paperwork,) and he thus had to work various low-paying jobs once he moved his family north to Indianapolis. Indeed, this seemed to have a distinct effect on Major Taylor - Balf often references date books and ledgers and scrapbooks that young Taylor kept, books in which he meticulously notated everything from purchases to hosiery size, as if the bike racer was determined in some way to be "official."
Taylor had to overcome outright racism not only on the track but off - even as the most famous participant in the nation's most popular sport, the man would arrive in a city for a race, and if he could even find a restaurant that would serve him, he would be told that he had to eat in the kitchen or out back. On the track, acting on the orders of McFarland, other riders would conspire to box Taylor in as a means to keep him from winning. Through it all, even though he did often become inwardly angry, Taylor remained a dignified gentleman and raced cleanly and smartly - he often would count his opponents pedal strokes as they raced, which enabled him to calculate the size of gear the other man was using. He could then predict with amazing accuracy not only when he'd have to "jump," but with how much effort, all based upon a comparison with his own ring size.
As McFarland conspires to control the sport and thusly have Taylor banned, Major continues setting records and destroying all comers. All of which, of course, leads to a glorious, final face off between the two in Australia, which Balf describes with thrilling panache.
Major: A Black Athlete, A White Era, and the Fight to be the World's Fastest Human Being is a compelling read and is a necessary perusal for any cycling fan, yet one not necessarily be a cyclist to enjoy it. It's a book rife with human drama - this captures the very beginnings of the pre-Jim Crow Laws Civil Rights movement as Taylor finds himself both devoted to and torn between black leaders W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington; he feels drawn more to Washington's preaching's of hard work and patience throughout the book, yet understands and sympathizes with Du Bois' "action now" theories. Taylor made and kept scrapbooks documenting deeds of other blacks of the day to use as inspiration, and often found himself wondering about fairness and equality where the (black and white) races were concerned. Major Taylor played a crucial role in American history, and yet he's woefully underappreciated for his part in both sports and racial matters. He was not only America's first cycling superstar, but also America's first superstar black athlete - he was the Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Lance Armstrong, and Roger Federer of his era, and he remained a steadfast Christian and a gentleman through it all. Anyone interested in historical human drama would do well to read Major at their earliest convenience.
Recommended:
Yes
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