Major

Major's sport was professional bicycle racing: a thrilling and dangerous spectacle that was our national pastime before baseball, and the world's most popular sport at the turn of the 19th century. This period (1880 - 1900) was an era of glamor and innovation, with the advent of electric lighting, the telephone and motion pictures. But it was also a period of virulent racism; the "Jim Crow" era when lynching abounded and Ku Klux Klan membership soared into the millions. Into this time of opportunity and peril rode Major Taylor. Born into poverty, the grandson of slaves, challenged by his lifelong coach and friend, Birdie Munger (former high wheel cycling champion), Major overcame unimaginable odds, transmuting the vile prejudice of his era into a stunning ride to victory on both national and international stages. In 1900, when Major fought his way to both the American and World Cycling Championships, he was the richest and most celebrated athlete on the planet; quite literally, history's first black superstar. Sadly, with the coming of the automobile and airplane, the sport of cycling was all but forgotten in America by the end of the Great Depression. And tragically, the stunning achievements of its unlikely hero, Major Taylor, have faded from our national consciousness.