Page:The fastest bicycle rider in the world - 1928 - Taylor.djvu/42

 ence in the six-day race had not finished my career as a sprinter, but enhanced it instead.

Despite the fact that I was at the top of my form that summer I was not able to make a fight for the championship that season because the circuit extended into the South and my entry had been refused by all southern promoters. They claimed it would be folly for me to compete with white riders in that section of the country.

I found that the color prejudice was not confined to the South entirely, in fact it had asserted itself against me even in and around Boston. It would be difficult for me to narrate all the unpleasant experiences which I underwent in my long racing career, and also to call to mind all the vicious attempts that were made in vain to eliminate me from bicycle racing. I was the only colored rider ever permitted to compete in the professional class, and one may well surmise the obstacles I had to overcome against prejudiced and narrow-minded opponents. Incidentally, there were a few stars who matched skill with me that never tried to do an underhanded trick to me whether on or off the track.

But to get back to the unpleasant experiences I had in Boston. So apparent was the ill-will of the white riders against me that the press of the city took them to task and demanded that I receive a square deal in all future races. A deliberate foul on me at Waltham on Memorial Day when I was pushed off the track, and another foul committed against me at the Charles River track were the beginning of my racing difficulties. The officials and members of the press were unanimous in their demand that I be accorded the same treatment given the white riders.

One of the Boston newspapers carried a story the day after one of my races in which it took a rider named W. E. Becker to task for choking me into a state of insensibility. This incident followed the close of the one-mile open event which was won by Tom Butler with myself second, and Becker third.

Just after we had crossed the tape Becker wheeled up and hurled me to the ground. He then started to choke me, but the police interfered. It was fifteen minutes before I regained consciousness. The crowd threatened Becker who claimed that I had crowded him into the fence. However, the judges disqualified Becker, and ordered the race re-run, but I was too badly injured to start.

I quote the following from a clipping in the Boston Post: "At the opening of the Southern Circuit last fall Taylor's entry was refused at Louisville, Ky., and throughout the South, on account of his color, and opposition against him has become so marked that he was compelled to give up the circuit. The League of American Wheelmen, which professes to control bicycle racing, draws the color line,