Page:The fastest bicycle rider in the world - 1928 - Taylor.djvu/156

 excitement. Both men refused to ride the heat over, Taylor claiming he won and Kimble alleging that Taylor fouled him by elbowing him in the home stretch.

“The third of a mile championship race: First heat won by Howard Freeman, Pease second; second heat won by Frank Kramer, Earl Kiser second; third heat won by Major Taylor, Jimmie Bowler second; fourth heat won by Owen Kimble, Stinemetz second; fifth heat won by Gordon, Watson second. First semi-final heat won by Kramer, Kimble second; second semi-final heat won by Taylor, Freeman second. Final heat Major Taylor and Owen Kimble dead heat, Frank Kramer third. The time was not caught owing to excitement.”

Another Indianapolis newspaper published the following item on the eve of the running over of the championship race between Owen Kimble and myself on the local track:

“Championship Run Over. Major Taylor and Owen Kimble, who rode a dead heat at Newby Oval last Thursday night have consented to ride the tie off at next Tuesday evening’s meet. They have agreed to race for a purse of $300, winner take all, and the winner to be credited with eight points and the loser four. This is expected to be the most exciting race of any on the circuit this season.

“The judges who officiated last Thursday night will not be asked to serve next Tuesday evening, for it has been reported that one of the judges who decided the race a dead heat afterward declared he believed Major Taylor had won the race, but because he disliked the colored rider personally he decided against him.”

I have mentioned several times previously how I was more than once most shamefully dealt with at the hands of unscrupulous track officials. On this memorable occasion, at Newby Oval, Indianapolis, however, it was one of the judges who used his official position of trust and honor in order to take an unfair advantage of me, simply because nature had decreed that the color of my skin should be black.

More than once when I have heard or read one of the dominant race boasting over some unfair advantage he has taken of a downtrodden Negro, simply because of his color, or perhaps his inferior position in life, I have recalled a remarkable utterance by the famous late Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll, who, perhaps actuated by a feeling of remorse, said: “Every time I meet a Negro I feel like getting down upon my knees to ask his pardon for crimes my race has inflicted upon his.”

This cowardly judge boasted among some of his friends after the above mentioned tie race between Kimble and myself how he had trimmed the “nigger.” However, the unsportsmanlike conduct of this judge gained many friends for me and his bitter prejudice only