African American jockey, three-time Kentucky Derby winner celebrated in new bio

[Blue_Tires]

If you are shocked to know that African American jockeys existed—much less thrived—in 19th-century America, don’t tell Pellom McDaniels III. He will be shocked that you are shocked. And yet, in the end, he accepts that his job is to ensure that our shared national history is just that.

McDaniels—the faculty curator of African American Collections in the Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library and assistant professor of African American studies—arrived later in life to a career as a historian and scholar. Earlier incarnations were as a respected defensive player for the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs and Atlanta Falcons, an inventor (who sold Procter & Gamble a patent for a dental product), an artist, and the owner of an aging Chevy Suburban (more on that later).

Of former NFL players turned academics, there have been relatively few on record. That only makes McDaniels work harder to paint a true picture of what sports have meant to African Americans, a view that dissolves many stereotypes. As McDaniels says in his new biography, "The Prince of Jockeys: The Life of Isaac Burns Murphy," "To most Americans, athleticism is an inherent feature of blackness, directly linked to the mythology of race promoted by the founding fathers."

His countervailing view, eloquently interwoven in the book, is that sports has exerted a powerful role in allowing African Americans to express their intelligence and drive, to learn collaboration and organizational skills, and to develop that chief ingredient of character: self-discipline.

Early Life and Legacy

Born Isaac Burns in 1861, Murphy spent his life in Kentucky, born to enslaved parents; his father served as a Union soldier, and his mother was one of very few women who owned land in postbellum Lexington.

The young Murphy joined the world of horse racing at the age of fourteen and by the 1880s was making tens of thousands of dollars per racing season. Murphy won the Kentucky Derby three times, the American Derby four of the first five runnings, and had an unmatched winning percentage of forty-four. He was among the inaugural class of jockeys elected to the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1955. His life sounds like a tale of liberation, progress, and prosperity.

http://news.emory.edu/stories/2014/04/emag_pellom_mcdaniels_prince_of_jockeys/campus.html

[monmouth3]

1. What a great read. Thanks for posting. nt

[FreedRadical]

2. Though I didn't know of this specific story..

I am not at all shocked by this. The story of African Americans and all American horse cultures are deeply intertwined. I have an uncle who for his entire life was a horseman and cowboy. I think he fancied himself a William Pickett http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/p/pi003.html. He rode bulls in the 40s and 50s and trained race horses all my life. Even now he is closing in on 80yrs old and is still involved with everything horses.