Born: November 26, 1878
Birthplace:
Indianapolis, IN
Died: June 21, 1932
Place of Death: Chicago,
IL
Zodiac Sign:
Sagittarius
Career and Life
Marshall Walter "Major" Taylor was an American track cyclist who began his amateur career while still a teenager. He became a professional racer in 1896 at the age of 18.
Walter won the sprint event at the 1899 world track championships in Montreal to become the first African American to achieve the level of world champion and the second Black athlete to win a world championship in any sport.
Taylor also set world records in the sprint discipline in race distances ranging from the quarter mile (0.4 km) to the two-mile (3.2 km).
He was an American sprint champion in 1899 and 1900 and completed races in the U.S., Europe, and Australasia.
In 1910, he retired to Worcester, Massachusetts.
In 1928, Taylor self-published his autobiography, The Fastest Bicycle Rider in the World, but severe financial difficulties forced him into poverty.
Throughout his athletic career, Taylor challenged the racial prejudice he met on and off the velodrome and became a pioneering role model for other athletes facing racial discrimination.
In 1989, Taylor was inducted into the United States
Bicycling Hall of Fame. Other tributes include memorials and historical markers
in Indianapolis, Worcester, and his gravesite in Chicago.
Several cycling clubs, trails, and events in the U.S. have been named in his honor, as well as the Major Taylor Velodrome in Indianapolis and Major Taylor Boulevard in Worcester.
Taylor has also been memorialized in a television mini-series and a song.