THE BLACK CYCLONE CYCLIST ON HIS BIKE
THE BLACK CYCLONE ON HIS BIKE is an 8x6 signed, watermarked print on heavy paper. I adapted a b&w cabinet card of Marshall Major Taylor. It was enlarged, colored, and mounted on a gray panel. A period poster for robust bikes (elegant and tres solide enough an elephant could ride it.) A banner was added with the name French cyclists used for Taylor.
Grandson of a slave, Marshall Major Taylor was called “the first Black American global sports superstar.” Taylor tirelessly challenged racial prejudice in the white-dominated sport of cycling. He was avidly followed by President Theodore Roosevelt and became known as The Black Cyclone, as well as The Colored Cyclone, The Ebony Flyer, and the Black Zimmermann. (Georg Zimmermann won the first world cycling championship in 1893.)
Born on November 26, 1898 in Indianapolis, Taylor was one of eight kids. As a young boy he became a “companion” to the son of a wealthy white family. Sort of a hired playmate. When that family moved, they gave Marshall the gift of a bicycle. And as they say, the rest is history.
Marshall Taylor when on to break many world records and garnered many world titles. The t.v. series “Tracks of Glory” is about him, and the Blues musician Otis Taylor (no relation) recorded "He Never Raced on Sunday,”also about Major Taylor. In 1928 Marshall Taylor wrote “The Fastest Bicycle Rider in the World: The Story of a Colored Boy's Indomitable Courage and Success Against Great Odds: An Autobiography.” #cycling #blackathlete #biking #marshallmajortaylor #blackcyclone #robustbikes #cyclonenoire #africanamericancyclist #otistaylor #georgzimmermann #seesawcyclingclub #marshalltaylor #peterjketchum