We’re used to hearing “The Star Spangled Banner” played at sporting events. But when cyclist Marshall “Major” Taylor rolled onto the scene at competitions, they played a different tune to get under his skin.
Whenever Taylor’s name was announced, the band would play the 1850s minstrel song “Dixie,” to embarrass and demoralize him. From the first days of his illustrious cycling career in the early 1890s, he was the target of racism in a white-dominated sport. His ride to fame was a bumpy one, so put on your helmet.
Taylor’s opponents went to desperate lengths to defeat the world’s first Black super cyclist. They set traps along his route, ran him off the road, and another cyclist even tried strangling him. In 1897, Taylor reached his limit.
He hoped that if his skin was lighter, racing promoters would stop banning him from competitions. So at his manager’s urging, he started bleaching his skin. But the cream burned him and he stopped, declaring: “My color is my fortune.”
No matter how “major” Marshall Taylor was, racism had him questioning his own Blackness. But just like the star cyclist, we must break out of the pack that downs our skin color and turns us against each other – and ourselves.