{"id":195074,"date":"2024-02-22T10:16:13","date_gmt":"2024-02-22T10:16:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=195074"},"modified":"2024-02-22T10:16:13","modified_gmt":"2024-02-22T10:16:13","slug":"two-documentaries-to-shine-spotlight-on-the-great-black-cyclist-major-taylor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/02\/22\/two-documentaries-to-shine-spotlight-on-the-great-black-cyclist-major-taylor\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Documentaries to Shine Spotlight on the Great Black Cyclist Major Taylor"},"content":{"rendered":"

It seems that America is finally coming around to telling the inspirational story of \u00a0Marshall \u201cMajor\u201d Taylor who was one of the great cyclists of his time and one of the first Black athletes to win a world championship in any sport. Long before the days of Jesse Owens and Jackie Robinson, the first Black to play Major League Baseball, Major Owens \u2013 nicknamed \u201cthe Worcester Whirlwind\u201d \u2013 overcame a viciously racist society and cycling establishment to become the best bike sprinter in the world. He broke the world sprinting record in distances from 1\/5 mile to 1 mile no fewer than 33 times in his career. One of those records,\u00a0the standing start one-mile world record of 1:41, was not bettered until 28 years later.<\/strong><\/p>\n

His accomplishments on the track, in the face of astonishing resistance, will now finally be brought to the screen, both on TV and in the cinema. On February 26 (and again on March 5 and 10), PBS will show \u201cMajor Taylor: Champion of the Race<\/a>,\u201d a documentary chronicling his life and times and how he became the greatest cyclist in the world \u2013 and the second Black sports world champion, after Canadian boxer George Dixon who won the world bantamweight title in 1890.<\/p>\n

The film is narrated by the highly acclaimed mezzo-soprano Marietta Simpson. The great jazz saxophonist Branford Marsalis will read and interpret some of Taylor\u2019s written quotes. Many of the quotes will surely be from his autobiography, the aptly titled The Fastest Bicycle Rider in the World,<\/em> written in 1928, four years before his death, in a Chicago hospital charity ward, of a heart attack at the age of 53. In addition, the documentary includes interviews with many well-known historians, athletes, and activists such as two-time Olympic hurdles gold medalist Edwin Moses, Taylor\u2019s great-granddaughter Karen Brown-Donovan, and Richard Lapchick, president of the Institute of Sport and Social Justice.<\/p>\n<\/lite-youtube>\n

A documentary feature film, Whirlwind,<\/em> is tentatively scheduled to be released in 2025.\u00a0According to its executive producer<\/a> and director, Cyrille Vincent, the film will portray Taylor\u2019s story and use it as a means to discuss the larger history of African American history in the U.S. from Reconstruction to the Depression. Vincent is in need of funds to bring the project to the screen. Its budget is $1.25 million. To date, he has raised $48,570. To contribute to this worthy cause, simply go to the film\u2019s website<\/a> and chip in.<\/p>\n

Vincent told CyclingWeekly<\/em><\/a> that he found it \u201csurprising this story has been forgotten\u201d and said, \u201ca movie should have been made long ago.\u201d What makes the cyclist\u2019s story so important, he said, is that it is so inspirational. \u201cHe\u2019s a pioneer in cycling, the Black community, and paved the way for so many people after him,\u201d he said. One reason he believes Major Taylor\u2019s story isn\u2019t more widely celebrated is that you can\u2019t tell it without \u201cencountering things that make people uncomfortable.\u201d Of course, Vincent sees this as another reason for sharing the story \u2013 \u201cbeing quiet doesn\u2019t help.\u201d<\/p>\n

Certainly, the story is a reminder of the depth of the racism that characterised American society until the 1960s. If Major Taylor\u2019s story reveals anything, it is about the courage and fierce will of an athlete who overcame overwhelming odds to become the best in the world. For example, in the American South, some promoters refused to let him race against white cyclists, and restaurants and hotels often refused to serve him or give him lodgings. Taylor himself said that white rivals would often team up against him and jostle him during races.<\/p>\n

But he would have the last word. In 1894, the League of American Wheelmen (LAW), a membership organization that promoted cycling, changed its bylaws to exclude blacks from membership but it did permit them to compete in its races. In 1898, Taylor won the coveted LAW sprint championship. One year later, he was crowned both world and national sprint champion. The man himself said it best in his autobiography: \u201cIn a word, I was a pioneer and therefore had to blaze my own trail.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It seems that America is finally coming around to telling the inspirational story of \u00a0Marshall \u201cMajor\u201d Taylor who was one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":174918,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[329,334],"tags":[4893,7635,7636],"global-categories":[3366],"class_list":["post-195074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-road-cycling","category-socialising-and-culture","tag-major-taylor","tag-marshall-major-taylor","tag-whirlwind","global-categories-cycling"],"yoast_head":"\nTwo Documentaries to Shine Spotlight on the Great Black Cyclist Major Taylor - \u0160koda We Love Cycling<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It seems that America is finally coming around to telling the inspirational story of \u00a0Marshall \u201cMajor\u201d Taylor who was one of the great cyclists of his\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/02\/22\/two-documentaries-to-shine-spotlight-on-the-great-black-cyclist-major-taylor\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Two Documentaries to Shine Spotlight on the Great Black Cyclist Major Taylor\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It seems that America is finally coming around to telling the inspirational story of \u00a0Marshall \u201cMajor\u201d Taylor who was one of the great cyclists of his\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/02\/22\/two-documentaries-to-shine-spotlight-on-the-great-black-cyclist-major-taylor\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-02-22T10:16:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2019\/08\/Major-Taylor-CVR.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Siegfried Mortkowitz\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/02\/22\/two-documentaries-to-shine-spotlight-on-the-great-black-cyclist-major-taylor\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/02\/22\/two-documentaries-to-shine-spotlight-on-the-great-black-cyclist-major-taylor\/\",\"name\":\"Two Documentaries to Shine Spotlight on the Great Black Cyclist Major Taylor - 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