The city doubled. There were horses and horse and buggy was was the travel there are street cars and elevatedres no subways but the cycle came along. Has been something that special specialized riders but safety bicycles came along and the mass started to ride. The bicycle became the most popular form of conveyance. People who had just relied on the slow moving horse and buggy world had a way to get around cleanly, fast, very efficient, and for a lot of people this was their own form of independence, around this time, for example, a woman who has writing about suffrage, wrote a biograph called how i learn to ride the biffle. So gives you a sense of the new world of the bicycle and the most popular sport at this time was cycling. Much more so than baseball, for example. If you wants to see fastmoving sport you went to one of the men bell dreams and there were white races and black dominated race but to the main races were dominated by white riders. Major taylor had been born in indianapolis, indiana. Left there because of the racism he faced and moved to worcesters, massachusetts so this major taylor when he was 15 years old and you can see he is a slight man. He hissing high when he was an doll was 57 in the 140s when he was a racer and wasnt bill for racing. A lot of the racers were 60, larger bodies but a man who ran a bicycling Manufacturing Company in indiana and took a liking to major taylor, took him under his wing and his name was birdie bunger and he say in marriage taylor something of himself. Yes, black man and this was a white man he had been the champion of the highwheeled bicycle era so he whats worlds fastest mans in early 1890s and then saw major taylor and he thought marriage major taylor had the makings of a great bicyclist temp had a friend and the family took him in and at the friend was from a wealthy white family and major taylor called him like basically a millionaires son. Her had a very from a very poor family but had a upbringing at well with another family that provided him bicycle and berniemonger took him to missouri. One people influential in his life was a man named arthur zimmerman. He was also a World Champion and taught major taylor about how to build your body, how to use nutrition to become a strong man. Arthur zimmerman write a book called points on training and major taylor devoured the become and learned good tips how to use food, how to use the gymnasium and tried to go to the ymca in nays and they said youre not welcome here because of the color of your skin and he learned but the monster prejudice. So Bernie Munger decided to leave with him, leave indiana, leave his company and moved the any company to worcester, massachusetts, and there major taylor was brought along and went to the web williams willia ymca and was woked. Bernie munger believed so strongly in major taylor that by 1896, after he had one some amateur races, took him to new york city wanted to enter him in the gratest race of the time. An inest testament how strongly Bernie Munger believed in major taylor. Its a very palatial type of building theyve they held the six, day race. Race around it for six days straight, an hour for rest but was an inhuman type of race. You can survive that you survived one of the most brutal sporting contests quizzed by devrieses by man. At the time the gatest sprinter in world was a man named eddy balder, or eddie cannonball because he could shoot in front of the competitors leak a ball from a cannon. He was a very handsome man, much bigger than major taylor and he envisioned himself as the star of the day. Before the word super star was used he was it. He has the greatest sprinter and paid to advertise products and making more than 10,000 a year. Came from Humble Beginnings and learned to ride a bicycle but working in his fathers butcher shop in buffalo and on a biffle he took the meat around to the neighborhood and add a lot of weight to his bicycle and great training to be a spring are because when the meat was taken off he could fly like a cannonball so he was a great sprinter and didnt know about major taylor but Bernie Munger decided this was the race that Merrill Taylor so shoober. A preliminary contest of a half mile before the great sixday race would again. So the half mile race was five laps around a noble. If you can imagine in Madison Square garden there are 10,000 dna thousand people there. Theres so much smoke from cigarettes, cigars, pipes, that you could barely see around the curvature of the track, one racer said. As they raise major taylor said there was so much grime and sneak that one after white ride hes looked like he could have been his brother, that covered with the grim from the arena. So, amidst this you can imagine trying to race in an atmospherey youre checking choking on mike. So the first preliminary match was a half mile sprint. Five laps around the oval. Againsted major taylor took his place, and Bernie Munger walked him tonight the starting line and 15,000 people are watching as a rare occurrence happening of a black man against a bunch of white racers. To put this in perspective this is demings of 1896 december of 18 96, months earlier was to decision of the Supreme Court and decided by a 71 ruling that separate but equal was fair accommodation. That wasnt fair of course to blacks but at the time a white dominated ruling class basically wanted to come up with a system that would institute segregation and that ruling in the middle of 1896 started to institutionalize the jim crow regulations that continued on. So six months after the case heres major taylor, 18 years old, and to his mind, his first professional race, all the pressure in world is on his shoulders not just for his own personal glory but in fact to hold up the standard for fish race. Her felt if he could succeed he would prove disprove the racist theories and thats what he wanted to do. Extraordinary pressure against the greatest sprinter in world. The starters pistol released, its cracks and they good raising around the oval. One lap two laps and so on, and incredibly as the crowd is it shouting major taylor believe he won at the race and throws up his hands and victory and the South Brooklyn club which trained him is yelling, theres one more lap to good, and yesterdayie san con ball darts her, major taylor hear is his team mates and realizes theres one more lap to do so he then shoot us out himself like a cannonball and incredibly wins that sprint, and his first professional race against the greatest of odds, in front of an incredible crowd and thinks champion sprinter. Thats an extraordinary accomplish. And then thats upthe preliminary. Next is the sixday race. So suddenly before this great crowd in new york city this greatest sporting arena of the day, major taylor is the talk of the city. Who is he, hours did husband young black man beat all the best white sprinter and then there was a,day race that everybody want to said. There were newspaper writers around the world. There was no radio or tv, and there were ten newspapers in at the city, papers from around the world covering the race and were write bought major taylor, Marshal Walter major taylor, how is he able to do this and the stickday race is about to start. As major taylor gets up to start the sixday race the see this man by the starter res pistol is no other than eds eddy ball and he wont risk his health in a sixday race but major tail had no choice. He had to promise he would race all six days. Initially the promoters who ran baseball teams that werent as profitable, decided why not initially allow major taylor because of his skin color. Eventually he was able to say to them race, a lot of peep want to see move. The promoter said this is exact quote he shining the shoes of the white gentlemen on fifth avenue and major taylor said no, i should be on the racetrack. And promoters realized this was a ray to attract people. The is would be black versus white ask thats how the race was promoted. Sixday race went up. Gelledie eddy ball was in the there but the best racers in the the world had comp. When he within around the track they played anthem but for major taylor they didnt have the National Anthem tv the United States and the band struck are dixie the unofficial anthem of to confederacy. Major taylor paid no mind and the National Anthem of the other riders were played and they all lined up and for six days incredibly they went around and around, he would take an hour break here or there, Bernie Munger would his manage were say you have had an hour, it was actually 15 rests. Bernie munger was pushing him so well and major taylor balm had hallucinations and said theres a mon running after me with a knife in his handsment just imagine six days. It was inhumane. Extraordinarily difficult. After six days many riders had dropped out. Major taylor survived and raised raced all six days, 1700miles and came in eight place that was bass a great victory was a great victory. Nobody expected him to complete the race. Now the combination of having him won the sprint against eddie ball and to survive the six i day racemate made hem an international figure. The talk of the city and cycling was the most popular sport in the country at that time. Look at the sports pages from the time you see story after story but cycling and major taylor is prominent in many of the stories. As major taylor started racing more and more, a lot of the white racers did not want to face him and knew how good he could be and was becoming better and better as he learned to race against the best competition. So he would start to be care could toured by others. This was a team , the integrated boston cycling team. Some people believe this is one of the first integrated sports teams in the country on a professional basis. This a year after the Madison Square garden race. Theres major taylor, small man compared to look how big the other guys are, on this team. Major taylor was not initially expected to do so well. He just had an extraordinary capability, was an incredibly smart rider. Two of the people on the team are brother, the embrace major taylor, have to four white men were immigrants so a very interesting time, 1897. Think how many years that was before Jackie Robinson broke the color bottom line in Major League Baseball and major taylor was the First American sports hero because the broke the barriers well before jack johnson was the world heavyweight boxing champion in 1908. And before jessie owens was in the olympics in berlin and before Jackie Robinson broke the major league color barrier in 1947. If all those men were here today they would say major taylor behaviored the wade. And jackson who won the world boxing championship 1980. One of the early least black sports here us he initially was a cyclist and wanted to emulate major taylor. He did. Participate in cycling and he was injured and decided he wanted to take part in a less dangerous sport, boxing. It was very dangerous sport. With a pacing machine ahead of you, the speeds could be 40 Miles Per Hour or more. This a picture of major taylor as the white racers trade to basically get him to not participate. They said youre not allowed for jim crow reasons. Tried to been him. He adopted scientific methods as to how to use body to degree he would be great athlete. He later said if im ounce over my weight, i give up edge. He adopted science of the day, at the time theory was that blacks were inferior in body and in mind and so forth, all of it untrue but that was the theory of the day, Scientific Study that was done and the gentleman who did the study that i write about in the book, included basically that has nothing to do with how you are raised, how you train, that determines who you are, no inherent deficiency. As he developed his body this is what he looked like when he was in conditions, extraordinary transformation from the 57 boy he had been, incredibly disciplined training in autobiography, the picture he puts in perfect condition, there really was nobody else in all of cycling who is as dedicated to the training, consume a lot of protein, this was a time in which people had fatty food, he was very much in protein, mass quantities of eggs, he was disciplined in what he ate and what he did. As i mention, they would take advantage of this. 1898, black versus white, race in massachusetts and you can see there if you can, 1,500, thats a massive amount of money in 1998, average income is a few hundred dollars annual income so winning this race was extraordinary amount, 30 miles, half mile. 40mile race, he didnt win this one, eddy was a great sprinter himself and as cycling developed in late 1890s they would use pacers, they would get ahead and go behind the group of pacers. You could go faster and faster, eventually precursor of motorcycle, they would put 2 or 3 seats, load it up with engines, noisy and you ride behind that to go faster and faster and in that case you could reach speeds of 40 Miles Per Hour which was at the time one story said this was the fastest a human had ever gone and so this was people came out to see, again, in the days before all the racing this was big attraction, thousands of thousands of people, eddy mcduffy was a pioneer, he set world record of speed going behind motorized pacing machine. Sponsors knew to get world record they had to go faster hand eddy mcduffy. So to do that they came here to chicago, there was a park track and tracks which you could compete, manager was a great engineer, very fastpacing machine. He would ride it himself and in chicago they made 6 amendments to try to beat eddy mcduffys world record. They were not successful. Tried in concrete track and they tried several times and finally riding the pacing machine, major taylor set record for speed. 1899 the race occurred, major taylor could be declared, as the title of the book says world east best man. In july of 1899, here is the story, in fact, from the time period, if you could read it, breaks all record, after breaking the record here in chicago, major taylor invite today participate in World Championships which were north of the border in canada, held in montreal, some of the white competitors, they didnt want to be seen in the same track and they refused to go, many other racers on team they went from around gathered to compete and no racist stories about him, held as a hero, everyone knew he held record and many stories about him. Largest crowd to see match to see cycling match with major being attractions from around the world. Judge had ruled no, the other person in the race who was second was first, people in the crowds saying, thats not true, someone said everyone thinks that major thinks won the race stand up, the judge ruled that major taylor came in second. A lot of people thought it was unfair. Another race yet to come, in that race major taylor faced butler brothers and others and in that race major taylor was victorious, World Championship and subtitle first americas black hero. They played dixie. In canada where he won World Championship, major taylor for the first time heard the star spangled banner play for him and when i heard the National Anthem play for me in canada i never felt more american than i did on that day and shows you how strongly major taylor felt about being american and black american and great pride in country, he knew that there was a lot of racist people that we wanted to deny him, great friends like munger who helped him get there in the first place. He knew that they were good people and bad people but the reality was when that anthem was played for him in canada it was a very, very emotional moment to be declared World Champion and hear the National Anthem play and how grateful he was for that moment, paving the way. There were at the time many hundreds of stories around the world written about him because the International Press in montreal, cycling was great support and so many members of the media had come to write about this. Major taylor was courted by a lot of french promoters. Major taylor said i would go except for sundays, for religious reasons. Finally they gave in, okay, theres no one else in america we want more to race in france than you major taylor, we will give you the ban on sundays, just come and race, he got a 10,000dollar contract, plus winning and he agreed to go to paris, he got married to a woman named daisy, this is daisy on the left there, major taylor in the middle, thats their daughter sidney who was later born when they went to australia. She was 96 years old, in 2001, she had seen father race in paris, remember that. Thought that was extraordinary moment, had a chance years ago to talk to sidney which i used in the book. Major taylor became as i say super star, here he is, typical, cover of the magazine, it was written about in publications in cover stories around the world, one of the most chronicled africanamerican man, of his time, widely talked about, fitness, wondered why such racism existed in america dpifn great skills, came to france, best racer in 1901. Pictures drawn, photography existed at the time but new era in photography and he became widely photographed by some of the best photographers in all of france, one of the greatest crowds to see cycling match in are paris history. Major taylor was defeated. Wasnt quite ready for strategy and techniques, demanded a rematch. This was the largest race in paris as far as the attention, the number of spectators, quite extraordinary, second match, to, again, declared the worlds best man, so quite extraordinary, became the raced all over europe and quite strayed. I want to leave time for questions and i want to jump ahead about twothirds or more of majors story, its all written about in the book year after year becomes champion all around europe, goes to australia twice, few americans had gone to australia, much less black americans. Did extraordinary well. He returned and wanted to become executive in automobile business as autos were taking over the bicycle and had young child, he decided he wanted to retire and go to massachusetts where he had a home and become an automobile titan, invested thousands of dollars, unfortunately it did not go to well, the family believes there were racist reasons that he might have been cheated out of Investment Company as major taylor tried other ventures the era of the bicycle began to pass. Jack johnson won championship and world war i took place, youd hope there was a great coming together from world war i, a lot of blacks served in world war i, in 1915 the movie birth of a nation was released which led to rebirth of the ku kluz klan, major taylor had done so much in his life to try to show that the racist theories at the time should be disproven and seeing around him revival of some of the worst racism that he experienced when he was younger. In 1920s, major taylor decides that he we wanted to write his story because he thought the nation needed to be reminded especially young people who were too young to remember, remember what could be done if you applied yourself against great adversity. He wanted his story to be learned as lesson. He sat down and started writing his autobiography which he called the fastest bicycle rider in the world. And as he wrote this book in 1920s as i mentioned, the kkk was on the rise, sadly, a mile and a half from his home in 1923 the leader of one of the new england kkk had a huge speech at the mechanic hall, great venue in massachusetts, this drew 1900 people into that auditorium and 500 people in overflow, you can imagine sitting autobiography and hearing kkk, had welcomed him to ymca and had welcomed him with liberal city relatively speaking, i want to read you from the book something that occurred during that speech that was given by the klan leader, so let me read from a book just for a moment, theres an individual called eugene, speaking before 1900 people, 500 in overflow. I will read here, ascending to the stage, took off hat and coat and eyes over the audience, speaking slowly. The crowd roared approval, walked to edge of the stage where reporters had gathered, told the crowd that he would have hard to hard talk with newspaper boys and began one of many attacks, the press of this country is becomes discredited because it does not publish facts, does not tell the truth, does not serve the great mass of people impartially, issue by countless speakers seek to go stir up a crowd, a year later the klan had bigger meeting, 15,000 people gathered at fairground a few miles of major taylors home, largest kkk rally in history of new england, small city of 120,000 or so people, 15,000klan members gathered. Major taylor still writing autobiography and getting published and hears about incredible klan rally, must have been disheartening and only made him stronger that people learned her story and reading from the book for a moment, a thousand people signed up as klan members. A lot of people did not want klan members to be there and protests came out. There were a lot of clashes in the streets, cars overturned and then theres a incredible riot past midnight where the people were against the klan fight with the klan, incredible scene, a story from the front page to have western newspaper the next day, klan beaten in street, car stoned, woman injured and on the side but says klan plane forced down, i didnt know they had a plane, it had kkk symbols on it and buzz right over the neighborhood where major taylor lived. It must have been extraordinary difficult thing for major taylor to witness and hear as hes writing autobiography. He publishes the book, at the time the depression comes in, hard to sell book and moves here to chicago, older man who was racing competitor knows of major taylor and thats where he lived his last days, he died here in chicago, buried here in chicago. Whats important is his is a story of inspiration. Theres a way overcome adversary and he wrote autobiography for the reason and transcended role for fight for civil rights, taylors words, life should be remembered for, quote, simple justice, equal rights, deal, brave people not only athletic game but every honorable game, quote, unquote, great civil rights leader and im very proud to be part of that effort to keep memory going because its very relevant even to this day, thanks very much. [applause] i would be dliebted to take questions. People who have known about major taylor, yes, question [inaudible] 18 years i had heard of major taylor. I was interested in what happened after reconstruction when the jim crow era took hold and i wondered how did that happen, what did he do to overcome incredible adversity that so many people in his race faced and he became World Champion. Became interested in the story because i believe history is a way to enlighten where we are today. I learned that his daughter was still living, sidney, sidney was living in pittsburgh, 96 years old. I got in touch with majors great granddaughter, i met with her in pittsburgh and i talked to her about her fathers story and she told me about the terrible things he had experienced and how she thinks that the story should be remembered. Major taylors papers, he kept scrapbooks, clippings from around the world, he also wrote letters to his wife that still exist, he kept a lot of momentous of his career so i realized that there was a lot of material to work with. A lot there so i wrote a magazine story and that appeared after 911 and i got a lot of letters from a lot of readers saying this is the kind of story we need to hear in terrible time for our country and after that, larger book here to do about social political history of the time with major taylor as the narrative engine for that story, so over time, over the last 18 years, off and on i collected thousands of stories, read a lot of books about the time period and gradually put together the books that im speaking about here today. Yes, sir, in the back. [inaudible] risk reward in addition to in addition to talking to sidney, i met family, i sent them the manuscript before it was finished. I had the good fortune to be in touch with majors family. I spoke in boston, wednesday and thursday, one of the great granddaughters have been at the talks, ive been able to stay in touch with the family, they do a lot to promote the stories, not just because its a Family Member but they are familiar, its fair to say that they are delighted theres a book. Theres been more publicity in the last year than has ever been. It really is a story thats inspirational and i believe people should know lots more about that, so the model here, what youre doing in chicago. I read many biographies of major taylor, what would you say in your words, im assuming you read the biographieses also, in your words, how would you say your biography is different from the other biographieses that ive had the pleasure of reading as well . Sure, this book, im historian and journalist, investigative reporter, i really wanted to understand the grand social history, so the other books im sure are fine, my book is kind of book that i would write. I tell people if you havent done it it hasnt been done because you bring your own personal view, your knowledge, expertise and thats what i wanted to do. I have great interest in understanding the broad history, what was interesting to me jim crow era and gilden age, how did those two worlds collide and so i tell that in great detail in the story, throughout the book i put in the history of the time, you learn about what the president of the era, basically hard to imagine today, powerful groups of its time, the people who built bicycles held a lot of patents, groups of tens of thousands of cyclist who went to washington for paving a road, good road movement, long before automobiles, if you go to parkway and paveed, the odds are good started from a Bicycle Group saying we should pave the road, not a trail but a road. Big part of history and i wanted to put that in a perspective and tell the fuller story, i also found a lot of unique sources because of the digitization of newspapers thats occurred i was able to search for stories that had not been available, major taylor put a story in scrapbook and it was there, i was able to expand upon that for waiting many years to write the book to take advantage of stories that i didnt know about. I will give you an example, there came a time where major taylor was under great death threat and manager was afraid they would not compete even in the north. So one day and this was common, advertised in the newspapers that were directed towards African Americans applying logs to make your skin look lighter, or look white. There was no reason to do this, it was a racist marketing campaign, but major taylor and munger were so desperate because major taylor was being banned that munger convinced to let logs be applied and it was painful and burned the skin, day after day they applied the logs and taylor did look according to munger slightlyless black but it was only slight and incredibly painful that they gave up on the exercise. Scared me to death. Wanted to do well. He was trying to help but he did do extreme measures to help munger become a champion. In the end major taylor used as motivation, never again will i try to do anything that covers up my skin. I want to use my race, my black skin as he put it as motivation and that is what he did, he raced on behalf of his race and he said that was what motivated me for the rest of my career. I found those articles, story quoting one of the individuals, munger or taylor, the other ones quoted saying story in newspapers and i found them because papers had been digitized. Many things like that that i was able to track down that i hadnt known before. Another example is i was very interested with major taylors father gilbert, served in civil war, served for the north and wasnt clear exactly how he served. Eventually i read one of the major taylors letters to his wife written to paris, so he wrote one occasion, he was concerned that if something happened that she knew where the insurance policies were and mentioned that his fathers pension was under name of will hike and not taylor because he had registered to serve under someone elses name, many reasons why this happened sometimes, but with that clue i was able to figure out, here is where he served, major taylors father served for the north, sounds out there was extraordinary details that helps understands little bit more, we know that Gilbert Taylor went to veterans reunion wearing military jacket. Major taylor wore this when he was doing bicycle in indiana, maybe thats why he was called, quote, major, father was never a major and maybe thats where the nickname came from. Thats one of the several theories, but wearing the jacket is one of the reasons, he never served in the military himself but nickname that came from childhood. Other questions . Yes, sir. Comment to get your take on this, so all this occurred in 1809, thats roughly 30 years after the civil war . 1890, war ended in 1865. Many civil war veterans, many people in the south who are very angry over loss of civil war. We will find other places for glow the south and sent to savannah, georgia with somebody else. They thought this would be okay because there were a lot of blacks in savannah, in fact, the white riders did not want major taylor, there was incident where major taylor was on the road training and 3 white cyclists, youre not welcome here leave, basically i will show you and he saw race to town. They could not keep up with the one individual major taylor. After that, you know, brave act, major taylor decided with his partner there it was time to leave. He couldnt train by the white riders left him a note, either leave or we will kill you, faced all sorts of things. Time lynchings were prevalent, faced extraordinary racism, death threats, you name it, he endured the worst of it. Physically this was difficult. Concussions as far as i can tell, people didnt understand concussions like they do today. Go back on the track, you crash, have a concussion, go back, thats the worst thing you should do. The time when he came back from europe and he said i cant race anymore right now, he said i nearly had nervous breakdown and for 3 years he didnt race, finally he had to come back and did well and went back again. Extraordinarily difficult. The physical a abrasions and held it together in an extraordinary fashion. Other questions . Yeah. Did major taylor ever consider staying in france or like europe to live out his life or did he always planned on returning to america . He felt very warmly towards france, there was some bad incidents, one who owned a hotel in france basically other americans staying there came to the owner, we wont stay in the same place with a black man and made him move to a different place, he was outraged. This was supposed to be the land of liberty and equality as the french slogan has it. It became a huge controversy in the french press and so people rallied around him and as a result of that major taylor felt grateful and warm towards the french people and he wrote newspaper columns which i was able to read, similarly going to australia, first tour, people said you should move here, in fact, later on usa rally was not familiar to friendly to him, when he took to him he took don walker, they returned to the u. S. At port of San Francisco, when they got to San Francisco, put in best hotels, all the newspapers there, he was incredible super star, he gets back to San Francisco with the australian racer walker hes not allowed to stay in hotel where whites stayed, he were not to eat in same restaurants, he couldnt believe it. Don walker had to trick the people at restaurant, he went in restaurant, ordered the food for a number of people and then told taylor, wife and daughter to come and join him and the people at the restaurant were appalled that the black man was allow today eat with them, this is not right that youre not allowed to eat in the restaurant and he could not believe what he was seeing as far as racism that taylor had to experience back in america. This was his home, racism here was incredibly unfair and says here, he wanted a fair shake, he felt that given a fair shake that he and anyone else could triumph if there was enough perseverance. Other questions. It was not yeah. [inaudible] before birth of a nation. People realized in the first tour, it was incredible, there were restrictions on race in australia, there was a newspaper that has slogan little later, australia for light usa australians, japan, other nations and so forth, very few black american who is would have visited australia at this time. Initially he was welcomed, when taylor came into the port in sidney u. S. Australia, he was amazed, the mayor of sidney greeted him. In the second tour, none of that happened, the enthusiasm had waned and they werent so happy about him coming. Attitudes had shifted, he still had many supporters there, he overcame a lot of adversity there and i write in detail about that. They did feel they named their daughter sidney after the city of australia, the second tour was not as pleasant as the first unfortunately. Yes, sir. What do you think is major finding of your research. Whats the major finding . Something that you discovered that you hadnt known before which made a good impression on you . Well, i think its the totality of achievement that he paveed the way, i think people know this, theres an interview that was done with sidney in which he said he was the first black american and so not as big cycling by long shot, cycling was biggest sport. Im not going to discover that hes a World Champion, we know that. My effort here is to bring the story to the widest possible audience in the on text of context of the time that he deserves that transcended the role to fight for civil rights, he was a civil rights leader in his way, a lot of people looked up to them, even black press of the day, idolized. He was written about awful lot. He became forgotten and one of the reasons because he competed in a time before radio, before film, we have no audio of him talking, no film of him racing, we have incredible photography, i hope theres film that exists because he races as late as 1910, its possible somewhere in some archive, if youre listening archivists maybe theres film of major taylor in actual race. We do see films at the same time and doesnt take much imagination to see what he went through. I purchased the audio of the book and i havent gotten through the hard copy, havent finished it but just a comment as i have gone through different excerpts of the audio and im so appreciative of how you characterized him in the book which i ask you the question because i already kind of knew the answer from listening to the audio but i want to applaud you for highlighting and focusing on the fact that yes, he was the World Champion, he was a civil rights activists and the parts listening to audio you seem to articulate that very well and i want to applaud you for that and thank you for that and if i had answered the question, thats how i would you do awesome job, amazing job of really bringing to the light that he was also civil rights activists which was almost as great as him being a World Champion. Thank you so much. Comment. I appreciate that. Im not a sports writer. I did an excerpt in the book last week and that was my first sports story in all of my career as journalist. I love sports stories, i follow sports but i am in this case historian, writing a story that deeply involves sports but really is as much as anything else the social history, political history and he was remarkable in what he did and these are some examples, examples on the mural that you did, it really is an important part of our national history, if you dont understand the history you dont fully understand American History because he was able to do something in an extraordinarily difficult time and paveed the way for others who came after him. Thank you very much. Thanks for coming, honor to talk about major taylor here in chicago. [applause] signing books over there. Thank you
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