Major Taylor

Autorentext
Frederick Noland focuses on under appreciated Black Historical Figures. He created the public art series “San Francisco Black History” for the San Francisco Arts Commission. The standalone Respect Black Women compiled biographies-in-brief of Black female historical figures. His latest work Major Taylor, is a graphic biography of America’s first Black world champion, documenting Taylor’s rise from obscurity, facing racism at every turn.

Noland's work has appeared in The New Yorker, the New Haven Independent, Nickelodeon, and LA Weekly. He lives in Oakland, California where he is an avid but unremarkable cyclist.

Klappentext

Celebrating the history-making Black American who smashed world records and became a global cycling sensation!

Marshall Walter “Major” Taylor was one of the greatest American athletes of the early 20th century, setting records in regional bike races as a teen and winning his first world championship by the age of twenty. But Taylor was born in 1878 in Indianapolis and came of age during the height of the Jim Crow era, facing racism at every turn. 

Cartoonist Frederick Noland is a cyclist himself and in this epic 400 page graphic biography of America's first Black world champion, he thrills in the records Taylor broke and the adoring public he found across North America, Europe, and Australia, all the while showing how the invention of the bicycle changed society. Yet Noland also documents how racism inflected Black life in the post Civil War era: cyclists would collude to injure Taylor, and he faced segregationist policies even in liberal cities such as San Francisco. And while Taylor found respite racing overseas, he soon found American-style racism exported internationally to sell tickets.

Noland pens a gorgeous, humane, graphic paean to Major Taylor, illustrating how the fastest man in America also had a deep well of integrity and fortitude not just to succeed, but to overcome the racist abuse he faced from fellow athletes and society at large. Major Taylor is a loving tribute to an exceptional American.