Major Taylor, 'The Jackie Robinson Of Cycling', Honored In Worcester With Museum And Monument
WORCESTER (CBS) -- When it comes to trailblazing black athletes, Marshall "Major" Taylor may not be a name you hear very often.
The cycling superstar spent much of his life in Worcester and he broke records while defeating bias at the same time.
"I think Worcester always liked Major Taylor. It was the newspapers that dubbed him the 'Worcester Whirlwind,'" said Lynne Tolman, President of the Major Taylor Association.
A cycling superstar in the late 1800's, it would be nearly a century before the world recognized his achievements.
"Cycling itself really declined mid-century, and one of his biographers Andrew Richie, put it this way, 'A dead sport doesn't remember it's heroes,'" Tolman said.
But the city of Worcester now honors Taylor with a monument and a new museum dedicated to him at the Old Worcester Courthouse.
Taylor's story began in Indiana where he first started to ride.
"He started doing trick riding. Ride backwards, sit on the handle bars," said Tolman. "They had him doing that outside of a bike shop in Indianapolis to draw people in, wearing a military style jacket. So somebody called him 'Major' and the nickname stuck."
Taylor eventually moved to Massachusetts for a better and more tolerant place to live.
"He was really pleased to be able to join the YMCA in Worcester. Because he had been really stung as a child to be not allowed to be able to join the Y in Indy."
But even as the Worcester whirlwind really started to take off, racism remained a constant obstacle.
"He had a tough time in a lot of places. There were times when he couldn't get a hotel room, couldn't get a meal. All the other opponents were white at the elite level. He was the only black rider. They would basically gang up against him."
In 1899, Taylor would become the world's one-mile sprint champion.
"He was the first black athlete to become an international superstar. He was headlines all over the world. He was the toast of Paris. They really rolled out the red carpet for him in France. He was a rock star!"
His great granddaughter Karen Brown-Donovan says Major Taylor was a sports pioneer, and his legacy is living on.
"I liked hearing that sometimes people would wait for hours, just for the chance to shake his hand," said Brown-Donovan. "Major's reach is spreading quite well these days."
Tolman succinctly described his true impact.
"If I only had to two seconds, I would say he's the Jackie Robinson of cycling. He broke the color barrier. If I had a couple more seconds, I would point out we should be saying it was the other way around. Because Major Taylor did this half a century before Jackie Robinson."
Taylor was also a man of intense faith, resisting some invitations to compete because he did not want to race on Sunday.
And that reflected in his fight against racism, famously saying, "Life is too short for a man to hold bitterness in his heart."
