Author Terry Kerber on Major Taylor

Our program on September 23^rd was presented by a local author, Terry Kerber. He and his brother Conrad have written a biography of a black bicyclist who was world-renowned in the early 20^th century, Major Taylor.

Bicycle racing, according to Terry, was more popular than horse racing in the late 1800s, and most major towns had built “velodromes” for bike racing. Major was born in Indianapolis, and started riding at the age of 12. He became so good at stunt and trick riding that he was hired by a bike shop to put on exhbitions at a salary of $6.00 a week, plus he was given a $35.00 bicycle. He won his first race (a 75 mile one) in 1895 in Indianapolis when he was 16 years old. Called “The Black Cyclone” by the press, he was banned from racing in Indiana, and moved to Worchester, Mass. In 1899, he set seven world records in a period of six weeks.

 

Racism hampered his efforts, and he became popular in Europe and Australia, where he continued to dominate the field. After a seventeen-year career, he retired, losing all of his money in the stock market crash. He dies in Chicago as a pauper.

 

A group of professional riders and the Schwinn Company later exhumed his body, and provided a proper burial and a monument to his greatness.