A nonprofit organization in Chicago announced Tuesday that it is launching a national drive for Marshall Walter “Major” Taylor to be given the Congressional Gold Medal, part of a multipronged effort to recognize the pioneering African American cyclist who trained and lived in Worcester.
“This is a great day to come together to celebrate and to preserve the legacy of the greatest cyclist ever,” Illinois State Rep. Kam Buckner said at a press conference at the Wabash Avenue YMCA in Chicago Tuesday. “I stand in support of all of you to recognize a great man.”
The nonprofit Bronzeville Trail Task Force established the Major Taylor Initiative to advocate for the civic recognition of Taylor, who died in Chicago and is commemorated there with a 7.5-mile bike trail.
But Bronzeville Trail Task Force founder John Adams said that although he had grown up near the trail named after Taylor, he didn’t really learn about the cyclist until he was highlighted in a Hennessey advertisement in 2018. Adams has since become an advocate for the cyclist’s legacy and the board of the Bronzeville Trail Task Force passed a resolution in August to honor Taylor.
To do so, the group is heading up the effort to get Congress to pass the Marshall “Major” Taylor Congressional Gold Medal Act. It is also advocating for a Major Taylor postage stamp and to bring a cast of Worcester’s Major Taylor monument at the Worcester Public Library to a community walking, running and biking trail that it hopes to develop in the future.
Taylor was born in Indianapolis in 1878 and earned the nickname “Major” when he performed cycling stunts outside a local bike shop while wearing a military-style jacket.
He won his first bike race in 1890, went on to establish seven world records in the next eight years and won the world one-mile championship in Montreal in 1899 to become the second Black man to win a world championship in any sport. He was the first African American international sports hero and the first Black athlete to compete regularly in open, integrated competitions despite Jim Crow laws. He was also the first African American to win a cycling world championship.
Taylor was also nicknamed the “Worcester Whirlwind” in reference to his adopted hometown of Worcester. He lived on Hobson Avenue in the city’s Columbus Park neighborhood.
But Taylor died penniless in 1932. The Wabash Avenue YMCA was his final home.
Just over 90 years later, Taylor’s great-granddaughter Karen Donovan was on hand at the Y to announce the efforts to recognize her ancestor.
“For me, personally, it was really amazing just to walk into this building,” Donovan said. “It’s given me a renewed sense of place.”
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