Born into an African American sharecropping family in 1880s Kentucky, Jimmy Winkfield grew up loving horses. The large, powerful animals inspired little Jimmy to think big. Looking beyond his family's farm, he longed for a life riding on action-packed racetracks around the world. Like his hero, the great Isaac Murphy, Jimmy "Wink" Winkfield would stop at nothing to make it as a jockey. Though his path to success was wrought with obstacles both on the track and off, Wink faced each challenge with passion and a steadfast spirit. Along the way he carved out a lasting legacy as one of history's finest horsemen and the last African American ever to win the Kentucky Derby. The Last Black King of the Kentucky Derby brings to life a vivacious hero from a little-known chapter of American sports history. Readers are transported trackside to witness the heart-pounding story of a vibrant young man chasing down his dream.
The spirited story of Marcenia Lyle, the African American girl who grew up to become "Toni Stone," the first woman to play for an all-male professional baseball team.
A Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize Winner of the Kirkus Prize for Fiction • A Recipient of the Windham-Campbell Prize for Fiction • A Finalist for the James Tait Black Prize for Fiction • A Finalist for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction • A Finalist for the Rathbones Folio Prize • Longlisted for an Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence • One of New York Times Book Review 100 Notable Book Named a Best Book of the Year by Entertainment Weekly • GQ • The New York Times (Selected by Dwight Garner) • NPR • The Wall Street Journal • San Francisco Chronicle • Refinery29 • Booklist • Kirkus Reviews • Commonweal Magazine "In its poetic splendor and moral seriousness, The Sport of Kings bears the traces of Faulkner, Morrison, and McCarthy. . . . It is a contemporary masterpiece."—San Francisco Chronicle Hailed by The New Yorker for its “remarkable achievements,” The Sport of Kings is an American tale centered on a horse and two families: one white, a Southern dynasty whose forefathers were among the founders of Kentucky; the other African-American, the descendants of their slaves. It is a dauntless narrative that stretches from the fields of the Virginia piedmont to the abundant pastures of the Bluegrass, and across the dark waters of the Ohio River; from the final shots of the Revolutionary War to the resounding clang of the starting bell at Churchill Downs. As C. E. Morgan unspools a fabric of shared histories, past and present converge in a Thoroughbred named Hellsmouth, heir to Secretariat and a contender for the Triple Crown. Newly confronted with one another in the quest for victory, the two families must face the consequences of their ambitions, as each is driven---and haunted---by the same, enduring question: How far away from your father can you run? A sweeping narrative of wealth and poverty, racism and rage, The Sport of Kings is an unflinching portrait of lives cast in the shadow of slavery and a moral epic for our time.
In a monumental and important work for the Thoroughbred industry, author and pedigree researcher Avalyn Hunter provides extensive pedigree analysis of every American classic race winner from 1914 through 2002.
A biography of African American tennis champion Arthur Ashe, a pioneering minority athlete known for his character, sportsmanship, and activism in social causes such as civil rights and HIV/AIDS awareness. Includes an afterword, author's note, and ph
On May 4, 1968, Dancer's Image crossed the finish line at Churchill Downs to win the 94th Kentucky Derby. Yet the jubilation ended three days later for the owner, the jockey and the trainers who propelled the celebrated thoroughbred to victory. Amid a firestorm of controversy, Dancer's Image was disqualified after blood tests revealed the presence of a widely used anti-inflammatory drug with a dubious legal status. Over forty years later, questions still linger over the origins of the substance and the turmoil it created. Veteran turfwriter and noted equine law expert Milt Toby gives the first in-depth look at the only disqualification in Derby history and how the Run for the Roses was changed forever.
The life of Jimmy Winkfield is an exuberant epic: the seventeenth child of Kentucky sharecroppers, he was the last black jockey to win the Kentucky Derby, and survived the Ku Klux Klan, the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, and the Nazis, and died a wealthy landowner in a French chateau. Jimmy Winkfield is surely the oddest and most invisible witness to some of the greatest historical events of the 20th century. His life is one of adventure and history, of travels around the world. Winkfield, a black jockey, won the Kentucky Derby in 1901 and 1902. He was the last African American to win that race, and actually closed out an era in which black jockeys dominated the event. (The legacy had its roots in slavery, when plantation owners left the care, training and racing of horses to their slaves. In the first Kentucky Derby, in 1875, 13 of the 15 riders were African Americans. So was the winning jockey. And, over the first 28 years the Derby was run, 15 of the winning riders were African American. ) Jimmy Winkfield went from being the youngest of 17 in a family of sharecroppers, to racing for $8 a month, and eventually $1000 per race. But in 1903 Winkfield lost his third attempt, and his racing life faltered. He found himself under tremendous economic pressure–and racial pressure at the same time, from the KKK. Anxious about racial riots and protests, Winkfield accepted an offer to race in Russia, where he found refuge from the KKK and became a star again. A few years later, he became the Tsar's rider, until the Bolsheviks chased him out along with 200 of the Tsar's horses. In order to save them, Winkfield drove the horses through a nasty Eastern European winter, eating some of them along the way to stave off starvation. He arrived in France with these beloved horses, became a gentleman, married, rode and made a lot of money. Then came the Nazis, who drove him and his family back to Aitken, S.C., where he resumed a humble life as a $15 a day horse groomer. After the War he returned to France and resumed his position, farm and estate. He came for a visit to Louisville in 1961 as a guest of Sports Illustrated and, ironically, was not allowed in the door of the Brown Hotel.
2018 NAME Philip C. Chinn Book Award Winner! This much-needed book will help schools and, by extension, society to better understand and identify the promise, potential, and possibilities of Black boys. Drawing from their wealth of experience in early childhood education, the authors present an asset- and strengths-based view of educating Black boys. This positive approach enables practitioners and school leaders to recognize, understand, and cultivate the diversity of social skills of Black boys in the early grades (pre-K–3rd grade). Each chapter begins with a vignette to illustrate what is lost when Black boys are prevented from participating freely in boyhood, having to instead attend to adult and peer interactions and attitudes that view them as “bad boys” and “troublemakers.” This accessible book provides teachers with classroom strategies to help young Black boys achieve their highest potential, along with other resources for supporting their social-emotional development, such as a reading list of authentic multicultural children’s books with Black boys as protagonists. Book Features: Challenges deficit views of Black boys in order to transform the way schools and society think, talk, and write about them. Provides culturally responsive strategies for engaging Black boys and fostering healthy self-identity and agency. Discusses the importance of critical self-reflection to examine attitudes and practices that inform how teachers engage with children and families. Examines how school officials, beginning in early childhood, can stop the adultification and criminalization of Black boys.
A gripping look at the great duel between Affirmed, the last horse to win the Triple Crown—comprised of the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes, and the Belmont Stakes—and his archrival, Alydar. From the moment they first galloped head-to-head in Saratoga Springs, the two chestnut colts showed they were the stuff of racing legend. Alydar, all muscle with a fearsome closing kick, was already the popular favorite to win the Kentucky Derby. Affirmed, deceptively laid-back streamlined elegance, was powered forward by his steely determination not to settle for second place. In the Sport of Kings, the Triple Crown is the most valued prize, requiring a horse to win not just one race, but three: the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes, and the Belmont Stakes. And 1978 would not be just for the record books, but also one of the greatest dramas ever played out in the racing world. There were names to conjure with, worthy of the Sport of Kings. The bloodline of Native Dancer. The teen wonderboy jockey Steve Cauthen. The once unbeatable Calumet Farm—the Damn Yankees of the racing world—now in eclipse and hoping for a comeback. The newcomer Harbor View Farm—owned by brash financier Louis Wolfson, who wouldn’t let even a conviction and a prison sentence for securities violations stand in the way of his dreams of glory. And the racetracks themselves: Belmont, Saratoga, Pimlico. And, of course, Churchill Downs. It has been thirty-five years since Affirmed and Alydar fought for the Triple Crown, thirty-five years when no other horse has won it. Duel for the Crown brings this epic battle to life. Not just two magnificent Thoroughbreds but the colorful human personalities surrounding them, caught up in an ever-intensifying battle of will and wits that lasted until the photo finish of the final Triple Crown race . . . and Alydar and Affirmed leaped into the history books.
