February is finally here! Is it just us, or did January seem extra long? Like 2020 long?
Hopefully, most of you know it’s Black History Month! We wanted to celebrate Black History Month by sharing a few interesting facts and stories from the past.
Who is Kittie Knox?
Photo from The Cycling Authority of America, courtesy of Wikipedia
In the late 19th century, Katherine T. “Kittie” Knox, a resident of Boston, was an avid supporter of the bicycling craze at the time. She was the first African American to join the male League of American Wheelmen that was established in Newport, Rhode Island.
She was not only known for her cycling ability, earning first place in a LAW meeting in Waltham, Massachusetts, but she was also known for her fashionable cycling outfits.
According to the League of American Bicyclists: “There was no denying that Miss Katie Knox was a card-carrying member of the League of American Wheelmen, but her attendance at the annual meeting in 1895 lit a fire that sparked newspaper headlines from coast to coast. Only 21 years old at the time, the bi-racial seamstress and cycling enthusiast dared to challenge the new ‘color bar’ instituted by the League just one year earlier.”
Who is Major Taylor?
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Major Taylor became known as a world champion bicycle racer who traveled the globe, racing in places as far away as Australia. He became known as the “Black Cyclone.”
Taylor set records during his teen years and was a world champion at 20. He was the first Black world champion in cycling and the second black athlete to win a world championship in any sport. To no one’s surprise given the time period, he dealt with racial hostility, including being physically beaten at a race and being sabotaged on the track.
According to the New York Times: “To imagine what he went through in the 1890s is unimaginable,” Edwin Moses, an Olympic gold medalist in track and the honorary chairman of the Major Taylor Association, said in a telephone interview. “I could not imagine competing and being a winner with what he put up with.”
Marshall Walter Taylor was born in Indianapolis, one of eight children. How did he get the nickname “Major? It was given to him as a boy. He would do bicycle tricks outside a cycle shop while dressed in a military garb to attract customers. Tom Hay, the shop’s owner, entered Taylor in his first race at the age of 13, a 10-miler. He won by six seconds.
In 1899, he won the one-mile sprint at the world championship in track cycling. He was the second black athlete, after the Canadian bantamweight boxer George Dixon, to win a world title in a recognized sport.
The 25th Infantry Fort Missoula Buffalo Soldiers
The 25th Infantry Fort Missoula Buffalo Soldiers were one of four regiments of black soldiers enacted by Congress in 1866. They were led by white officers. Fort Missoula was established in 1877 by the U.S. Army and the men of the 25th Infantry first arrived there in 1888. According to David McCormick with Historynet, in 1896, Maj. Gen. Nelson Miles gave Lt. James A. Moss the go-ahead to organize the 25th Infantry Bicycle Corps, “to test the practicality of the bicycle for military use in mountainous country.” Moss believed and wanted to prove that cycling was faster than marching and more cost-effective than traveling on horseback.
“In early August 1896, he and eight volunteers, including trusted Sergeant Mingo Sanders, made their first excursion, pedaling north to McDonald Lake in the Mission Mountains—a four-day, 126-mile round-trip. Later that summer, Moss led a 23-day, 800-mile bicycle trek from Fort Missoula to Yellowstone National Park and back again,” McCormick writes.
The newly formed bicycle unit consisted of eight enlisted men and their white commander, Lt. Moss. They were often referred to as the “Iron Riders.” They even had their own riding press detail. The 1897 trip to St. Louis, about 1,900 miles one way, became the test for the “Iron Riders.” Interestingly enough, while riding between towns, the corps threw any idea of a riding formation out the window. Some caught a wagon wheel rut and rode in it while others were less streamlined so as to avoid rocks and debris in the road. Before entering each town, the soldiers would regroup and get back into formation to show that they were in fact a military unit and not just random cyclists.
To learn more, visit History (linked above.) McCormick really paints a wonderful picture of these historic events.