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History of Blacks and Horse Racing

Pre-Civil War (1823-1861)

Horse racing was one of the most popular sports in the United States from 1823 until the start of the Civil War.
Black jockeys had more money than any other black in the United States (free or slave), and they were treated better.
A slave jockey could buy his freedom, along with his family’s (some even bought their own slaves).

-DeAngelo Starnes 2009

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History of Blacks and Horse Racing Continued…

The Civil War (1861-1865)

The Civil War “disrupted horse racing”—many of the horses used in the races were needed in combat.

-DeAngelo Starnes 2009

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History of Blacks and Horse Racing Continued…

The Reconstruction Era (1865-1877)

Kentucky Derby:

First winner, Oliver Lewis, was black
13 black jockeys in first race, and 5 also had black trainers
15 out of the first 28 winners were black
Youngest winner of the races was black—15-year-old Alonzo “Lonnie” Clayton
Isaac Murphy won the races 3 times (and won 628 of 1,412 races—that’s a 44% winning rate and still the highest in history).

-DeAngelo Starnes 2009 and “Forty Million Dollar Slaves”

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Ulysses S. Grant

18^th President of the United States (1869-1877)
Served in the US military
Helped Abraham Lincoln lead the Union side of the Civil War to victory
Was a member of the Republican Party
Was president during the time of the start of Jockey Syndrome (1875)
Was against the KKK
Was in favor of voting right for blacks—in fact a huge supporter

“Grant won the popular vote for president in the 1868 election, but he lost a majority of white voters. His victory relied on the votes of 400,000 African-Americans. A Republican, Grant fought a courageous battle against voter suppression waged by Democrats tied at the hip with the Ku Klux Klan. While the violent tactics of the Klan in the 1870s and the maneuvers of state legislatures today are different in kind, the goal is the same: denying the vote to African-American citizens. When Grant saw he could trust neither state legislatures nor local courts in the south, he determined to wield the power of the federal government to ensure the right to vote.” (Ronald C. White Jr.)

March 1872, Grant wrote to the Congress: “The power to correct these evils, is beyond the control of the State authorities…There is no other subject, on which I would recommend legislation during the present session.”

-Ronald C. White Jr. (2016)

Politics and Jockey Syndrome

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Jockey Syndrome

Basic definition:

Whites tried to block black athletes from sports.
Began around 1875, and continued for close to 60 years.
Created specifically for horse racing
Woven into the fabric of sports

How it started:

A black jockey, Isaac Murphy (won 3 Kentucky Derbies) became too powerful in the white man’s eyes.

Extremely wealthy jockey (made more than many white jockeys—$15,000-$20,000 annually)

Laws were passed not allowing blacks into jockey club's (referred to as “Gentlemen's Agreements”)—which a jockey had to be a part of in order to race.
If black jockeys were racing, many white jockeys would gang up on them and make sure they did not win.

-”Forty Million Dollar Slaves”

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Discussion Question One:

An interesting fact to note is Jockey Syndrome occurred during the time of a depression in North America and Europe (1873-1880). How do you think economics played a role in Jockey Syndrome? You have these white Americans who are angered by the increase in black athletes—specifically higher paid black athletes like Murphy. How do you think white America’s reaction would differ if a depression was not present during this time?

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Politics and Jockey Syndrome Continued…

Rutherford B. Hayes

19^th president of the United States (1877-1881)
Was president during the time of Jockey Syndrome
The Great Compromise of 1877

Won him the election
Troops pulled in Louisiana and South Carolina—ending the Reconstruction Era.
White Republicans left the areas as a result, and white democrats took over the state governments.
Resulted in more harassment of blacks in the south, and infringements of their rights.
Blacks felt betrayed

“To think that Hayes could go back on us when we had to wade through blood to help place him where he is now” (Blacks and Presidency).

-Blacks and Presidency (2016)

“Historian Rayford Logan presents a portrait of Hayes as a sincere, yet naive man, who preferred social harmony among classes and races. Logan implies that Hayes, after retirement belatedly realized the consequences of his administration’s abandonment of full civil rights for African Americans. If Hayes truly believed that, as Logan writes, ‘he had secured valid pledges guaranteeing fair treatment’ of African Americans in the South he ignored hard evidence to the contrary and the protests of blacks themselves. Logan for Hayes ‘the abandonment’ of blacks following Reconstruction ‘utterly contradicted everything else President Hayes had stood and worked for in his career’” (Blacks and Presidency).

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Politics and Jockey Syndrome Continued…

James Garfield

20^th president of the United States (1881-1881)
Was also president during the time of Jockey Syndrome
He was assassinated by Charles J. Guiteau (bottom right) the same year he was sworn into office.

Guiteau had requested a job from Garfield numerous time, and got rejected every time.

He served in the Civil War, and fought on the Union side.
He was in favor of black rights
He said: “The elevation of the negro race from slavery to the full rights of citizenship is the most important political change we have known since the adoption of the Constitution of 1787. NO thoughtful man can fail to appreciate its beneficent effect upon our institutions and people. It has freed us from the perpetual danger of war and dissolution. It has added immensely to the moral and industrial forces of our people. It has liberated the master as well as the slave from a relation which wronged and enfeebled both. It has surrendered to their own guardianship the manhood of more than 5,000,000 people, and has opened to each one of them a career of freedom and usefulness. It has given new inspiration to the power of self-help in both races by making labor more honorable to the one and more necessary to the other. The influence of this force will grow greater and bear richer fruit with the coming years” (The Washington Post).

-The Washington Post 2013

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Discussion Question Two:

Guiteau was struggling financially. He is another example of a white American struggling with the economy. He assassinated the president who is the symbol of black prosperity during this time, which was threatening white supremacy. Do you see a pattern with the financial fluctuation in our country, and the political liberalism as a contributor to racism and the white man’s increasing perception of limited capability?-in other words are do you see this as a projection of their own personal anger onto a minority group?

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Jockey Syndrome caused Jimmy Winkfield (began his career in 1898) to move overseas to Europe to race.

Comparable to “black American jazz musicians during the bebop era” (Starnes).
Bebop is a type of music comparable to jazz that black Americans invented during this time.
It wasn’t until World War II where Bebop took off.

Winkfield is comparable to Murphy

Both won back-to-back Kentucky Derby’s

-DeAngelo Starnes 2009

History of Blacks and Horse Racing Continued…

Culture during Jockey Syndrome Era

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Two Men that Fought Jockey Syndrome outside of Horse Racing:

Moses Walker

Major Taylor

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Major Taylor

1890 Bicycling became a big sports fad, with people racing around velodromes (the bicyclists called scorchers).
1896 He broke two world records for “paced and unpaced one-mile rides”

His records offended white Americans and he was later banned from cycling temporarily.

1898 He bought a house on a street called Hobson Avenue

His white neighbors did not want him because of his “offences” and tried to bribe him with buying his house from him for $2,000 more than he purchased it for. He said no.

1899 Taylor was most recognized African-American athlete
1932 He died and was buried in a pauper’s grave (lost all money and his family had left him).

16 years later pro-cyclists moved his remains to a better cemetery and wrote the following statement on this grave: "World's champion bicycle racer who came up the hard way without hatred in his heart, an honest, courageous, and God-fearing, clean-living, gentlemanly athlete. A credit to his race who always gave out his best. Gone but not forgotten."

-”Forty Million Dollar Slaves” & Lynne Tolman

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Jockey Syndrome in Baseball:

1887:

“International League owners agreed in a vote not to offer future contracts to black players” (pg. 80).
White players refused to take signals from back players (like Moses Walker) because it put them in a leadership position.

1889:

Walker retires from baseball
Advocate of Black and African Movement
Encountered racism and Jockey Syndrome

-“Forty Million Dollar Slaves”

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Athletes are property to be bought and sold by their “owners” (pg. 232).

Reserve Clause

Players are not allowed to explore the market (which is unlike other businesses), which creates a feeling of “divide” between the players and franchise owners.

Dictionary.com definition of Capitalism:

“An economic system in which investment in and ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange of wealth is made and maintained chiefly by private individuals or corporations, especially as contrasted to cooperatively or state-owned means of wealth.”

-“Forty Million Dollar Slaves” & Dictionary.com

The reserve clause is not like other forms of capitalism, due to the fact employees (the athletes) were not allowed to explore other options of employment.
Thus, the clause replicated more of the plantation dynamics in where the owner treated the players like property instead of people

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Discussion Question Three:

On page 238, Rhoden states that the United States was confused by Larry Johnson’s anger towards the media and team owners, because this nation equates wealth with happiness. The players are/were well compensated, so there was confusion with the analogy to “uncompensated slave ancestors.” But, how is this different from workers in any other business or company? Based on this, aren’t we all slaves to the “Golden Calf”—including the owners—and isn’t this the foundation of capitalism?

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Curt Flood

An African-American Major League Baseball player.�
Challenge the Reserve Clause with a suit in 1970 (pg.233)�

This was during a time of political and social changes/controversy—The Civil Rights Movement�

He lost the suit in 1972 by Supreme Court because of lack of support by players (pg. 236)�
His suit would impact/help both black and white players—it was against the establishment (pg. 233)

Since Flood did not win his suit, owners of the franchises still had the power to not only get the system, but the media, to destroy/control their players.�
In 1973 owners agreed to federal arbitration of salary demands—opening the doors for free agency—and won it in 1975 (pg. 236)�
Flood challenged the owner’s “plantation mentality” that players should be grateful for the opportunities sports give them (pg. 237).

-”Forty Million Dollar Slaves”

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Discussion Question Four:

Rhoden reflects that it is the “ultimate powerlessness of their condition” that makes the players feel like slaves. On page 240, he states, “Players were bought, traded and discarded when used up”). He acknowledged that this was equally true for white players. But the question is, isn’t this true in all companies? For example, many employees are forced to retire or are let go when they get old (illegal, but hard to prove age discrimination). Female TV anchors are let go when they age, because their audience tends to stop watching. What do you think? Is this true for all companies? Why?

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The Reserve Clause Era/Post-Reserve Clause Era

The Reserve Clause was abolished in 1975

Post-Civil Rights Era, and hippie movements
Country was heading in a more racially-liberal direction�

The President during this time was Gerald Ford (1974-1977)

He is known for not fully supporting black rights
Was more conservative
However, he did support the 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting Rights Act

Economically the United States was in a recession during this time.

This is an interesting component because all the other cases in history, the more liberal views seemed to coincide with more economic stability/growth.
Other coinciding factors are the Vietnam War and Richard Nixon's resignation.

-Eric Freedman, Steven A. Jones and Jennifer Hoewe (2012)

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Discussion Question Five:

Do you think these two factors (the Vietnam War and Nixon’s resignation) had an impact on the economy? Why? Do you think it had an impact on the emotional/political climate in this country, and if so how does that relate to the Reserve Clause?

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Discussion Question Six:

Today athletes like Colin Kaepernick support the “Black Lives Matter Movement.” Similarly, our political system is going through a change where racism has been more prevalent. Knowing that history has a tendency to repeat itself, and all we learned in the entire presentation, what do we think the social, political, and economic outcomes for this country’s future will be?

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Citations:

White, Ronald C., Jr. "Ulysses S. Grant's Fight against Racist Voter Suppression | The Christian Century." The Christian Century. N.p., 28 Sept. 2016. Web. 20 Nov. 2016.

http://www.christiancentury.org/blogs/archive/2016-09/ulysses-s-grant-s-fight-against-voter-suppression

Rhoden, William C. $40 Million Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete. New York: Crown, 2006. Print.

Starnes, DeAngelo. "The Lost History of Black Jockeys." American Renaissance. N.p., 5 June 2009. Web. 20 Nov. 2016.

http://www.amren.com/news/2009/06/the_lost_histor/

"Rutherford B. Hayes and the Compromise of 1877--African-Americans & the Presidency." Rutherford B. Hayes and the Compromise of 1877--African-Americans & the Presidency. N.p., 27 Nov. 2016. Web. 27 Nov. 2016.

http://www.blacksandpresidency.com/rutherfordhayes.php

Tolman, Lynne. "Major Taylor - Worcester Whirlwind Overcame Bais." Major Taylor - Worcester Whirlwind Overcame Bais. N.p., 23 July 1995. Web. 20 Nov. 2016.

http://www.majortaylorassociation.org/whirlwind.htm

History.com Staff. "James A. Garfield." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 2009. Web. 20 Nov. 2016.

http://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/james-a-garfield

Editorial Board. "For the Briefest Time, President Garfield Was an Inspiration." The Huffington Post. The Huffington Post, 17 Feb. 2013. Web.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/for-the-briefest-time-president-garfield-was-an-inspiration/2013/02/17/ce9f6e6e-778b-11e2-aa12-e6cf1d31106b_story.html?utm_term=.13b0a6c28ab0

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/capitalism

Freedman, Eric, Steven A. Jones, and Jennifer Hoewe. "Gerald Ford, Race & the Presidency." DomeMagazinecom RSS. N.p., 16 Jan. 2012. Web. 20 Nov. 2016.

http://domemagazine.com/features/cov011612