Filmmaker in Iowa for RAGBRAI to share history of Black 1899 cycling champion Major Taylor

Rachelle Chase, Des Moines Register
Updated ·6 min read
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As the 20th century was dawning, bicycle racing was one of most popular spectator sports in the U.S. and Marshall “Major” Taylor, a Black cyclist from Indianapolis, was one of its biggest international stars.

By 1898, 20-year-old Taylor held seven world records and in August 1899 he had reached world championship status after winning the one-mile sprint in the world cycling championships in Montreal.

When he retired in 1910, he’d won thousands of dollars and made headlines across the U.S., Australia and Europe, sometimes under nicknames like the “Black Streak,” “Black Cyclone” or “Worcester Whirlwind,” for the Massachusetts city where he won some of his most famous races.

A Meet & Greet with Cyrille Vincent, director and executive producer of "Whirlwind: The Story of Major Taylor, July 26, 2023, 4:00 - 5:30 PM at Hosanna Church in Des Moines. The event is co-sponsored by Black Girls Do Bike and Major Taylor Iowa Cycling Club.
A Meet & Greet with Cyrille Vincent, director and executive producer of "Whirlwind: The Story of Major Taylor, July 26, 2023, 4:00 - 5:30 PM at Hosanna Church in Des Moines. The event is co-sponsored by Black Girls Do Bike and Major Taylor Iowa Cycling Club.

He accomplished all of this despite experiencing blatant racism that sometimes spilled over into violence off and on the track.

But many have never heard of Taylor. Cyrille Vincent, an independent documentary filmmaker who lives in Worcester, wants to change that.

Vincent is riding in RAGBRAI with the Major Taylor Iowa Cycling Club to spread the word about Taylor and raise money for his documentary, “Whirlwind: The Story of Major Taylor.” All are invited to meet Vincent, watch the trailer, learn more about the documentary and enjoy free refreshments at a meet and greet hosted by Major Taylor Iowa and the Des Moines Chapter of Black Girls Do Bike.

The event will be held from 4-5:30 p.m. Wednesday at Hosanna Church, 2620 E. Watrous Ave., Des Moines. RSVP is required.

Partnering with Vincent was a natural fit for Major Taylor Iowa, Major Taylor Iowa founder and longtime cyclist Kristine “Sunnie” Jimenez said.

“We promote Major Taylor’s legacy, history and story. It’s not a club specifically for people of color, but we are a safe space," she said. "I am interested in equity and diversity in cycling. When we have that then we will have a healthy community. And by diversity I don’t just mean race, I mean women and children and ability.”

Dayna Chandler, the founder of Black Girls Do Bike Des Moines who appeared in the Des Moines Register's "Shift: The RAGBRAI Documentary," only learned about Taylor a couple of years ago. Later, she saw a Facebook post about Vincent’s documentary and, while considering the focus for the 50th RAGBRAI with Black Girls Do Bike and Major Taylor Cycling Club member Dr. Carla Mott, decided on Vincent and the historical significance of Taylor’s story.

“I grew up in Iowa when the percentage of Black people was only like 2% or 3% out of the whole state,” Chandler said in a recent interview. “So I didn't see a lot of people that look like me in our history books or even being talked about historically.”

Chandler wants Black Girls Do Bike to help spread awareness of Taylor, as well as Iowa’s history.

“We have gold sitting right here in our state and people know about these stories, but they're not being shared," she said. "And there's so many more that we don't know that haven't been shared.”

Ottumwa site of wins for Taylor and Iowan Black cyclist Leo Welker

On July 26 and 27, 1899, Taylor competed in professional circuit races in Ottumwa, where he won first place twice — once in the 1-mile national championship where he beat Nat Butler — and finished second in the 2-mile championship race to Butler. Taylor appears to have raced against the Butler brothers — Nat, Tom and Frank — often and had beat both Nat and Tom Butler for the world championship in Montreal.

In 1928, Taylor wrote about racing in Ottumwa and breaking the record in his self-published, 430-plus page autobiography, “The Fastest Bicycle Rider in the World: The Story of a Colored Boy’s Indomitable Courage and Success Against Great Odds:”

“… In that hair-raising final I led the field across the tape winning by a wheel's length from Nat Butler with Harry Gibson third," he wrote. "The time was 2:00 2/5, the last quarter being clocked in 26 2/5 seconds which was the fastest quarter ever ridden on the Ottumwa track.”

Also in Ottumwa that day, another Black cyclist, 18-year-old Leo Welker of Colfax, won first place in an amateur race. Welker, a student at Grinnell College, would go on to get a medical degree from Harvard University in 1907; enter into a private practice with another doctor in Chattanooga, Tennessee; and enter the Army, where he would be trained at Fort Des Moines in 1917 and serve in France, treating the wounded before being honorably discharged in 1919.

More: Leo Welker blazed paths racing bicycles in Iowa

Event also will celebrate Iowa BMX racer Kittie Weston-Knauer

Chandler said Pearson Consulting also will have an exhibit at Wednesday's gathering honoring Kittie Weston-Knauer, known as Miss Kittie, the oldest female BMX athlete in the U.S. With a goal to race in 75 BMX races for her 75th birthday, which was Saturday, Miss Kittie had to miss RAGBRAI.

She holds undergrad and graduate degrees from Drake University and had a 33-year career in the Des Moines Public Schools as an educator, as well as vice principal and principal. She was an active member and mentor on the RAGBRAI Dream Team, which helps students from under-represented communities train and ride in RAGBRAI. In addition to racing locally and nationally, she currently sits on the board of Horizon Science Academy in Des Moines.

“I believe my interest in RAGBRAI began with Miss Kittie when I was 16, seeing a black woman being something that I didn’t see happening in my world,” Chandler said.

When she was 16, Chandler worked at a day care Miss Kittie’s son attended and became familiar with her warm smile and words of encouragement. She said she believes that like Taylor, Miss Kittie inspired and paved the way for Black riders today.

The meet and greet is in keeping with Chandler's goals for RAGBRAI.

“We really wanted to be intentional about what it was we were wanting to say on the ride: Hold up the 'Whirlwind' movie, celebrate our very own Miss Kittie Weston-Knauer and then just the message of equity representation and diversity and inclusion in cycling,” she said.

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Rachelle Chase is an author and an opinion columnist, who's also launched a new column, Trailblazers & Trendsetters, at the Des Moines Register. Follow Rachelle at facebook.com/rachelle.chase.author or email her at rchase@registermedia.com.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Cyrille Vincent rides 1st RAGBRAI to raise funds for Major Taylor film