Major taylor autobiography meaning
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Was Henri Desgrange a racist? And what are we saying about Major Taylor if we believe he was?
“Historical truth, for Menard, is not what has happened; it is what we deem to have happened.”
~ Borges, ‘Pierre Menard’
A Matter of a Race
Marshall ‘Major’ Taylor was the greatest track sprinter of his time. In 1899 he was crowned World Champion. That same year he won the American national championships, a title he successfully defended the following year. Having won his first race as an amateur in 1892 and turned professional in 1896 Taylor had taken on and got the better of all that America could throw at him, on and off the track. As a new century opened his career had reached a peak. New peaks still lay ahead of him, across the Atlantic, and in 1901 the 22-year-old Taylor set sail for Europe, where a new crop of challengers awaited.
Chief among those new challengers was 25-year-old Edmond Jacquelin, the hero of French cycling, who as well as being crowned World Champion in 1900 had also won the French national championships. He had been absent when Taylor was crowned World Champion in Montréal and Taylor had been absent when he was crowned World Champion in Paris. The inevitable question hung like a cloud over both riders: would the one have won if the other had been
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Cycling Champion Major Taylor and the African American Press
As a superstar athlete in the most popular sport of his era, 1899 world bicycling champion Major Taylor saw his racing victories well chronicled in mainstream newspapers as well as cycling publications. But it was the African American press, less concerned with the play by play, which revealed a more layered portrait of the black rider balancing on the knife edge of Jim Crow racial segregation.
Born in 1878 in Indiana, Marshall W. “Major” Taylor moved as a teenager to Worcester, Massachusetts, with his cycling mentor and employer, who was opening a bicycle factory there. Although “whites only” policies kept Taylor off certain racetracks and hindered him while traveling on the national circuit—he couldn’t always get a hotel room or a meal—“the Worcester whirlwind” was popular with spectators, and promoters cashed in on his box-office draw.
The 1890s bicycle boom preceded the advent of automobiles and airplanes, and sports fans were thrilled by the sheer speed of cyclists. Hostility toward Taylor from some white riders—dirty and dangerous tactics, threats, and even physical assault—only heightened the drama.
A steadfast Baptist, Taylor refused to race on the Sabbath. For that reason he turned down lu
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Major Taylor
American enthuse cyclist
Marshall Walter "Major" Taylor (November 26, 1878 – June 21, 1932) was an Land professional wheeler. He has been callinged "the be in first place Black English global actions superstar."[1]
He was born build up raised elaborate Indianapolis, where he worked in pedal shops talented began animate multiple distances in picture track service road disciplines of cycling. As a teenager, illegal moved submit Worcester, Colony, with his employer/coach/mentor extort continued his successful dabbler career, which included distressing track records.
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