Robert Turpin, a professor of history and the director of the honors program at Lees-McRae College, is the author of Black Cyclists: The Race for Inclusion. A competitive cyclist before he pursued a doctorate in history, Turpin brings a personal understanding of the sport about which he writes. After recognizing the whiteness of the sport, Turpin’s reflections on the lack of diversity in cycling in the twenty-first century led him to this recovery of the forgotten story of Black cyclists.
Turpin begins with the most well-known cyclist from the sport’s early days: Marshall “Major” Taylor (1878–1932). Taylor was the first Black athlete of any sport to earn a world championship, yet his life ended in poverty with his unclaimed body buried in a pauper’s grave. This successful, well-known professional Black cyclist of the Progressive Era challenged the racist stereotypes held at the time. Turpin shows that Taylor was not the only Black cyclist of the era, and he was not even the first Black cyclist. The author states that his primary objective is to “unearth the stories of forgotten Black cyclists by providing biographical sketches of these individuals” (7). Using cycling magazines and newspapers published for Black readers, Turpin expands the knowledge of Black cyclists during this period.
The book’s nine chapters move chronologically through the Progressive Era. Turpin reviews the development of the technology of bicycles and the beginnings of competitive cycling. In chapter one, Turpin explores the founding of the first “colored velocipede club” in Reconstruction-era Savannah, Georgia (11). The velocipede, a new kind of machine with pedals, moved faster than previous riding equipment. Technological changes would improve the machines over the next twenty years. The early Black cyclists would be part of the process. In the next chapter, Turpin examines the cyclist community in Boston. He discusses the bicycle as the “technological embodiment of these ideals of freedom and independence” (24). Even before the popularity of Major Taylor, Black men and women joined the cycling craze. Black individuals like David Drummond and Louis “Birdie” Munger were members of cycling clubs and participated in organized cycling events. The members of clubs ranged in socioeconomic levels, and their membership might bring social mobility.
As with other sports – and society in general – cycling began to see the establishment of the color line in the 1890s. The 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision establishing the principle of “separate but equal” was not the first indication of the legal partitioning of society. In 1894, the League of American Wheelmen (LAW) debated the addition of the word “white” to their constitution at their National Assembly in Louisville, Kentucky. It was neither the first nor the last restriction on Black cyclists, who in turn debated the benefits of forming their own league to allow them to continue riding professionally.
Black women also rode bicycles and tricycles, especially as new equipment made it easier for women in long dresses to ride. Some women even opted to wear bloomers. Black women also challenged the color line with Katherine “Kittie” Knox’s membership in LAW. Cycling exhibited sexism when groups like the Massachusetts Bicycle Club excluded women in 1895.
As bicycle organizations were restricting membership by race and gender, they were also developing new competitions. Bicycle races became popular during the first two decades of the twentieth century. These events would bring together fans across socioeconomic groups to watch the competitions. Winners could prove their masculinity and win a cash prize. For Black men, though, the only options were amateur competitions in the United States or professional ones in Europe or Australia. Black cyclists such as Taylor, as well as Woody Hedspeth of Kentucky, would participate in these events, demonstrating their profound abilities even as their sport segregated them. Yet not all Black cyclists were able to find the same professional and financial success as Taylor and Hedspeth. Some joined vaudeville shows as trick riders, while others became roller cyclists, riding on narrow sets of drums or rollers and competing in segregated events. Turpin brings to light lesser-known Black riders such as Hardy Jackson, who navigated participation in the sport during its decline in early twentieth-century America.
As the careers of Black cyclists such as Taylor, Hedspeth, Drummond, and Jackson faded in the 1920s, they still faced the realities of living in a segregated society. Poverty, health challenges, and criminal convictions demonstrated that the athleticism of their younger days could not overcome the racism of American society. In an epilogue, Turpin provides an overview of the story of Black cyclists from the 1920s to the present. During that time, new generations competed in the Olympics and other international competitions. In 2020, the United States Cycling Organization announced that it would address “diversity and inclusion,” showing the ongoing challenges in the sport (189).
Black Cyclists contributes valuable information about the history of cycling in Black America. Turpin combines the stories of well-known athletes with those of less familiar figures to develop a fuller picture of the sport. By recounting the challenges faced by individual cyclists and racial restrictions on events, Turpin illustrates a changing world and a hardening color line in the cities and organizations he analyzes. While Turpin does expand our understanding of the history of cycling, there is less analysis of the larger society and the racial issues of the time. Overall, Black Cyclists is a well-researched work that meets its goal of reclaiming a lost story during a pivotal era in the history of race and sport in the United States.
