 Thank you very much I'd like to begin by thanking the National Archives for inviting me to share my book with you and thanks to everyone out there for spending this time with me. I hope to make it an interesting part of your day. Let me begin by telling you a little bit about myself. This is the third book I've published. First was the great sweepstakes of 1877 written about the first great north versus south race following the Civil War. Next came Diane Crump, a horse racing pioneers life in the saddle, which tells the story of the first woman jockey to ride at a major American racetrack. That book won the 2020 Tony Ryan book award as the best racing book of the year. And now we have the first Kentucky Derby 13 black jockies, one shady owner, and the little red horse that wasn't supposed to win. Next slide please. First Kentucky Derby. I need the next slide. That's good. The first Kentucky Derby tells three important stories. How America's iconic horse race the Kentucky Derby came to be. How Aristides, the first Derby winner, won the race despite his owner's best efforts and fervent wishes to win with a different horse. And how and why African American jockies who were once a central part of American racing. And who rode the vast majority of the horses in that first Derby ultimately left the sport. Now the exodus of black jockies was near total, unlike other sports in which increased diversity, sometimes after decades of being denied access has universally improved the quality of the game. Race riding in America was multiracial from the beginning, primarily because so many enslaved men proved to be gifted riders. But after African American jockies were largely expelled from the sport as the 19th century became the 20th. They never returned. Today, I'll discuss some of the reasons for this tragic history. But before exploring these issues. I think I should spend a moment explaining the three elements of my books title 13 black jockies, one shady owner and the little red horse that wasn't supposed to win. Next slide please. First 13 black jockies. The first Kentucky Derby had a field of 15 runners, 13 of them were written by African American jockies in 1875. This was not an unusual situation. In fact, newspaper stories written about that first Derby didn't even mention that the majority of the writers were black. It simply wasn't news it happened all the time. But before they largely disappeared from the sport, black jockies 115 of the first 28 Kentucky Derbies. My book also features one shady owner, and there's the man himself, the extremely shady Henry price McGrath owner of the first Kentucky Derby winner Aristides. H price McGrath had one goal in life to take your money. He went to great lengths to accomplish this. When he gold rush, he set up crooked card games to relieve the minors of their hard earned profits. During the Civil War, he lured soldiers into alleged games of chance, involving mark cards and fixed dice. This earned him a year in federal prison that I mentioned that the price McGrath was shady. He purchased his stable of thoroughbreds and a good stable it was with his gambling winnings. This wasn't the man to invite to your friendly neighborhood poker game. He reportedly once won $100,000 on a single hand of cards. In modern funds, that would be approximately $3.5 million, not a bad day at the tables. In addition, he was not about fixing a horse race. Sometimes he fixed races so that his own horses win. Sometimes he fixed races so that they would lose the wager was the thing. If he won his bets, even on somebody else's horse, that would be good enough for Henry price McGrath. Next slide please. We see the little red horse that wasn't supposed to win Aristides, the bright chestnut colt that price McGrath considered the less talented of his two Kentucky Derby entrance. Aristides was supposed to take the early lead in the derby and set the pace for his stamina rich stable mate Chesapeake was expected to fall behind the speedier runners early, but charge past his tired rivals in the stretch run. McGrath's gambling money was all on Chesapeake to win, and if Chesapeake could win the race he was going to earn a fortune. But Chesapeake apparently didn't feel like exerting himself that day. As we sometimes say about such horses Chesapeake never picked up his feet. What happened next became the stuff of legend and racing history, but I'm going to delay sharing that legend with you for a few brief moments because that part of the story belongs with Aristides jockey, Oliver Lewis and we'll meet him shortly. Next slide please. The story of the first Kentucky Derby begins with this gentleman. Colonel Miller mirror weather Lewis Clark, the grandson of General William Clark of the Lewis and Clark expedition. Colonel Clark seeking to promote racing and Louisville traveled to Europe in 1872 to see how the best tracks conducted the sport. But this was more than just a mere racing vacation Louisville has seen a number of its race tracks open and closed, mostly for financial reasons, and its last track had shut down years earlier. Louisville didn't have a track. Without a race track in Lexington in Kentucky's largest city, the value of land and horses had become stagnant. After all, why by horses and Louisville when you can't race them there. Why by horse property when people aren't interested in buying horses. And so the colonels European trip was the hope of Louisvillians to save an important industry. I might add, the man who may have saved horse racing in Louisville was all of 26 at that time you went to Europe. The colonel reviewed everything there. European betting machines and European flower gardens, European grandstands and European stable ponies. When he came home in 1873, he brought back to America plans for a new race track that would one day bear the name Churchill downs and ideas for a collection of races that he believed would become American classics. One of these modeled on a classic race of the British turf was also given its name and would come to be known as the Kentucky Derby by any standard Colonel Clark was a historic figure in American racing but he also proved to be a tragic figure, a victim of melancholia which today we call extreme depression. He committed suicide in 1899. He was 53. Next slide please. The first Kentucky Derby was run on May 17 1875 and it was a very different race from the modern day run for the roses to mention just a few of the major differences. The distance was a mile and a half instead of the current mile and a quarter that took place in 1896 to avoid owners and trainers boycotting the race altogether because they considered the distance too long. The track wasn't known as Churchill downs yet that wouldn't happen until 1883 people arriving at the track that day came to the Louisville Jockey Club course. The twin spires that you see in the left picture had not yet been built in 1895. The original in 1875. The original grandstand actually faced in the wrong direction. Race scores had just went into the sun to follow the progress of a race. This was finally corrected in 1895. The infield admission. If you arrived in a horse drawn vehicle. There was no blanket of roses for the winner. There was no official trophy you can see on the on the right, modern version of the other trophy which came into being in 1923. My old Kentucky home was not sun that day. And there was not even a starting it starting it hadn't been invented yet. The starting line for the first Derby was a string stretched across the track above the line that it had carved into the racetrack soil with a pocket knife. It had sent the field on its way, a man down the down the track, wave to red flag, the official starter yelled, go. And a man next to the official starter beat a rat attack on a drum, and that told the told the jockeys. Time to start. Next, next slide please. The next two slides and memorialized the men who trained and wrote Aristides to his derby victory. He was trained by an African American man, Ansel Williamson, who was born in 1810 or thereabouts and began life as a slave. He may have begun his racing career as a jockey, or maybe not. We simply don't know that much about his early days. But we do know that it took many years before is before racing historians compiled a complete enough record of his victories to prove that he belonged in racing hall of fame. He was finally inducted in 1998. And even with the work those historians did it's likely we'll never know his complete record. Part of the reason for this is that the official racing racing records of the day, sometimes didn't bother to list his victories he was a black man and matter of quite as much as the white trainers. Sometimes they misspelled his name or change it to answer Williams. Sometimes the official record excluded them all together. As a matter of fact, Williamson lived most of his life, his adult life anyway and in Lexington, and upon his death his obituary and one of the major Lexington newspapers was titled death of Ansel Williams. So, that was, that was unfortunate, but he continued he conditioned the winners of many an important race the Kentucky derby the Belmont states the withers the Jerome. He won races that were important in their time but long ago dropped from the racing calendar. Some attracts that no longer exist. Some in states such as Tennessee and Alabama and North and South Carolina, where through a bread racing is just a distant memory today. By equine artist Edward Troy shows and answer Williamson at the extreme right hand side the rather distinct looking man with the beard holding the saddle and preparing the horse asteroid to go to the track. This is the only known depiction and existence of answer Williamson. In this slide please. Aristides was written in the jockey by 19 year old African American jockey, Oliver Lewis. As I noted earlier, Lewis's instructions that day were very specific. He was to set the early pace for Chesapeake and maneuver Aristides out of the way so that my grass favorite cold could win and earn McGrath a small fortune with his wagers. And here is where we'll discuss the legendary result of that first Kentucky derby. Aristides took the early lead as Lewis followed instructions perfectly, but when Lewis and Aristides reached the final turn with that big derby field stretching out behind him. McGrath who was standing near the top of the stretch could see the Chesapeake was laboring at the back of the pack. He recognized that his derby wagers were going to be losers, but the other cold could still win the race and he became caught up in the excitement of the moment. He began waving his hat pinwheeling his arms and shouting at his jockey, go on with them all over go on with them. Oliver went on with Aristides and McGrath gained immortality as the first owner whose horse won the Kentucky Derby, but it was the wrong horse, and he lost all his bets that day. Next slide please. For more than a century, race riding in America was a sport in which African Americans excelled. In the 1870s, 80s and 90s included the likes of the incomparable Isaac Murphy, William Billy Walker, Lonnie Clayton, James soup Perkins, Willie Sims, and one of the greatest ever Jimmy wink, wink field. They overcame the prejudices inherent in the sport in post slavery America to achieve greatness in a sport that increasingly just didn't want them around. Murphy is believed to have won more than 35% of his races, but he claimed that the correct figure was 628 wins in 1412 starts 44.5%. No modern day jockey needless to say has ever come close to those percentages. Murphy was also the first to win three Kentucky derbies in 1884 1890 and 1891. It was nearly 40 years until Earl Sandy one has third of what gallant Fox in 1930. The two shared the record for another 18 years until Eddie R. Carol, one is fourth Derby aboard citation in 1948. The wink field was the last black man to win consecutive derbies in 1901 and 1902. The next time, the next time a jockey would win consecutive derbies would be 1972 and 73. And Ron Turcott were above one aboard river ridge and the great secretariat. But the greatness of black jockies in America goes back much further to the earliest days of slavery. Next slide please. The greatness of American racing black jockies when many, many erased, but even even the greatest of the black jockies were treated as property. A black rider might be known as Ned or Cornelius or Simon, or 100 other names on the race course, but most slaves were not permitted to use their last names, which might imply that they had a separate human existence apart from their owners. Look through old sporting newspapers, and you'll find advertisements. Jockey for sale, as you might sell an old plow horse plow or a feed bag or a set of horseshoes. Owners would loan or even lease their riders to their friends and businesses oceans. And at the end of their riding careers. Many of jockey would be returned to the farm to help train the next generation of enslaved jockies. It was in existence with almost no chance of escape. Additionally, even under the bonds of slavery, a jockey and the rarest of circumstances might earn his freedom by winning a big enough wager for his owner. Next slide please. Which brings us to the old Oakland racetrack in Louisville on September 30 1839. The jockey, known only as Kato, won his freedom. It was one of the great match races in history pitting Wagner, brought to Kentucky from the Deep South where he'd proven undefeatable at New Orleans and mobile against Kentucky's own reputed super horse gray eagle. And a brief note about gray eagle. He wound up being the father or the sire of traveler, the horse that Robert E. Lee wrote through the Civil War. This race for unknown but huge amounts of wagering dollars, plus a $14,000 winter tape all first that translates to about a half million and modern dollars and most of it would have been put up by the two owners as a side bet. And if he could guide Wagner to victory and earn those wagering dollars for the southern is backing his mouth. Freedom had been promised to his jockey, a tiny black man known only as Kato. Today were 10,000 spectators some in the stands, others in the tall oak trees surrounding the course that gave Oakland its name. One was prominent Kentucky statesman Henry Clay. In terms of the race required the winning horse to take two or three races, but Wagner sent everyone home early by winning the first two consecutive heats. Some Kentuckians had wagered not just their money, but also their saddle horses on the outcome. They had a long walk home that evening. So, having earned his freedom was last seen circling the track aboard the winning horse waving his 14,000, the $14,000 prize money over his head. After completing his victory lap he left off Wagner handed the money to the winning owner and wrote his own horse into the Kentucky sunset, a free man. Next slide please. By 19 by 1896, however, what might be called the golden age of black jockies in America was nearing its end. The American jockies were still winning plenty of races but things were beginning to change. Isaac Murphy once the highest paid athlete in America died in 1896 at age 35. That's the man called the Prince of Jockeys on the left, one of the original group of jockies inducted into racing hall of fame. He was partially succumbed to pneumonia, but his true cause of death was probably the starvation diet he used that left him vulnerable to illness. Many jockies of that era died young trying to make weight. In 1902, Jimmy Winkfield, that's him on the right, won his second Kentucky derby and the last for 120 years won by a black man. In 1905, the man known as the black maestro was on his way to Russia, forced out of racing in America by a combination of death threats and declining mounts. Years later, Winkfield would insist that Russia, the land of the czar, the breeding ground of the Bolshevik Revolution, have been a far more liberal environment for black jockies than America, the land of his birth. Winkfield's record in the saddle will never be equal, that's a certainty. He won two Kentucky derbies, a Clark Steaks, two Moscow derbies, three Russian derbies, five Russian oaks, two Warsaw derbies, a German grocer price one button, and a Grand Prix de Doville. Imagine what his record might have been if he'd stayed home in America and just gone after his own country's race. Continuing with the approaching end of the golden age of the black jockey in America. In 1911, Jess Conley finishing third aboard Colston became the last American African American jockey for 112 years and counting to finish in the top three in the Kentucky derby. In 1921, Henry King finishing 10th on an 81 to one shot became the last black jockey to ride in a Kentucky derby for 79 years. Next slide please. Excuse me. Even as the golden age Wayne African American jockies were still winning between 1890 and 1902 in fact black jockies when eight Kentucky derbies in 13 years. Isaac Murphy went in 1890 and 91 Lonnie Clayton 92 James Superkins one in 1895 Willie Sims one in 1896 and 1898 and might have become the first jockey to win three consecutive derbies if you've been able to ride in the 1907, but no wonder put him aboard a horse. And of course, Jimmy Winkfield was the winner in 1901 and 1902, but not long after those days were gone. Next slide please. Today, seeing a black jockey at the racetrack is a rarity. It's difficult to get a precise count of the number of African American writers because the official records don't indicate jockies races or ethnicities or for that matter even their I've seen one estimate suggesting a percentage of 4.9 which would be less than one half of the percentage of the population comprised of African Americans. Another writer determined that 30 of the approximately 750 members of the jockey club jockies Union are African American that would equate to about 4%. All I can say is that those percentages have not been reflected in the race racetracks I visited the original Kentucky Derby finished 13 black jockies. After more than 50 years of attending the races. I'm not sure I've seen 15, 15 13 black jockies in my lifetime. Let's look at the modern day sport and ask some more questions. Black jockies today able to get mounts and rich important races. Do they have access to the best horses. Can they ride for the biggest purses. Is it possible today for an African American jockey to move into a higher tax bracket by winning an important horse race. The numbers from the Kentucky Derby are discouraging. Let's take a look in 2000 Marlin sent Julian became the first African American writer in the derby since the boring 20s. In 2013, Kevin Krueger finished 17th behind Golden Sense in 2021 Kendrick Karmusch the gentleman pictured in the slide and Bourbonic finished 13th. And that's it. There are no black jockies in the 2022 Derby. And when they announced the starters for this year's race just yesterday the names of African American writers were once again notable by their absence. And the numbers that's three winners with black jockies, three runners with black jockies in 23 years in America's iconic race. There were 435 derby starters during that time. So those three lonely African American jockies comprised far less than 1% of the derby's total writers. The calculation for the 39 years of readers stuff has been in existence as America's championship weekend. And I'm willing to bet that the percentage wouldn't be much different. With rare exceptions, black jockies simply don't get mounts in the richest, most prestigious American races, which brings us to the next question. How could the nearly wholesale excess of an entire race from American throwaway racing has happened. Next slide please. Looking at the events of the era and also what was going on at the same time in American throwaway racing. I found 10 possible causes that I thought might have led African American jockies to abandon the sport of their ancestors, or in some cases to be abandoned by it. None of these was decisive in itself, but think of them as a cascade of falling dominoes land one upon another to ultimately deny African American writers their birthright as leaders in this sport. The 10 most important causes appear to be the 1876 presidential election in the end of the era of reconstruction, the 1896 Plessy versus Ferguson Supreme Court ruling which allowed so called separate but equal facilities. The smaller derby fields in the 1890s and 1900s, economic downturns affecting America, more white jockies entering the sport, black jockies own continuing success. The reduction of the plantation cert system following the Civil War, the ages of jockies, the rules of owners and trainers, and last but sadly not least, the racism of the country beginning with slavery. Let me explain each of those, and how they impacted black jockies in America. Next slide please. Let's begin with the presidential election of 1876 Republican Rutherford behaves the man in the photograph versus Democrats Samuel Tilden. Over the years we've been through a number of close and sometimes bitterly disputed presidential elections. Among others there were the 1960 Kennedy Nixon election the Bush Gore, hanging chat election of 2000 the wonder before the Supreme Court. And of course the Biden Trump election of 2020, which some still question, but Hayes versus Tilden may have been the most troubled presidential election in history let me tell you about Tilden when the popular vote, but the electoral election was disputed in four states, an electoral commission was formed to sort things out with Republicans in the majority. And so as you can imagine in the end, Republican Hayes was awarded all four disputed states and victory by one electoral vote. In response, the Democrats threatened the second Civil War. The Democrats prevailed and the revolution was avoided through what came to be called the compromise of 1877. In the compromise, Democrats agreed to recognize Hayes as president for four years. They weren't happy about it. He was referred to as Rutherford, and as his fraudulency, but they agreed to recognize him, and the Republicans agreed that Hayes would never seek reelection. And most importantly for our story, that federal troops would be withdrawn from the defeated South. As a result of the protection being gone from these federal troops with 13th 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution, abolishing slavery, be storing citizenship upon freed slaves, and affirming that they're affirming their voting rights were promoted through what came to be called the Jim Crow laws, which, among other things, compromise the ability of former slaves to find work, including work of stable hands, exercise riders and jockeys. And there is one falling domino. Next slide please. The second cause was the 1896 Plessy versus Ferguson Supreme Court decision. The issue before the court was Louisiana separate cars act. The question being considered was whether mandating separate train cars for black and white riders violated the Constitution. Larger question was whether segregation of the races would be accepted as a matter of law with future Supreme Court's using the outcome as precedent for their decisions. The separate but equal facilities did not violate the law implicitly endorsing segregating the races and for some the meeting was clear. One race was superior to the other and could separate itself from the lesser race. And which American sport was most integrated. Well, Jackie Robinson would not enter major league baseball for another 51 years. The NFL was just was decades in the future and basketball had been advantageous five years earlier. But by 1896 black and white jockeys had been competing on the American turf for over a century. Now, in the words of Professor, Professor Catherine Mooney's great book resource men, quote, racing became the athletic face of segregation with all white racing commissions and border stewards judging African Americans application for jockey licenses and adjudicating foul claims involving white riders, guess which side usually one separate but equal ruling was not corrected until Brown versus Board of Education in 1954. Well, I remained on the books for 60 years, almost. Next slide please. Walter Derby field certainly made it more difficult for black jockeys to find mounts for what was becoming an increasingly prestigious race. Bear in mind that the average field size in a Kentucky derby since 19, since 2000 has been 18.9 horses for the 17 years beginning with Isaac Murphy's 1890 victory war Riley, the average is 5.1. The average for the smaller field with the derby's first structure which remained virtually unchanged from much of this time, and Colonel Clark's refusal to refusal to reduce the derby's distance from the epsom derbies one and a half miles to the one one quarter miles preferred by owners and trainers who noted that their concerns were not being being addressed and began voting with their feet, taking their top three year olds elsewhere. In the 1890s, the Louisville jockey club was in financial dire straits, the derby itself was in danger of cancellation. In 1894, a new group calling itself the new Louisville jockey club took over control of the frack and demoted to Mark and two years later the derby's distance was shortened and its base purse was increased from $2,500 to $6,000 nominations for the for the race suddenly soared from 57 and 1895 to 171 the following year. And for the first time in over a decade, the derby actually got eight starters. It seems pretty amazing. Obviously smaller fields meant fewer spots for black jockies and another domino fell. Next slide please. Economic downturns in America has certainly affected the ability of black jockies to find rides. This is the period of the so called of the so called long depression, which is considered to have begun with the panic of 1873 and is held by economists to have lasted through 1896. Some think it lasted longer. It resulted in reduced jobs business few business failures and race tracks for not immune several went out of business. First structures were threatened Churchill Downs nearly went belly up and was sold in 1894 to the new Louisville jockey club the reason for that was economic by 1894 the original Louisville jockey club and paid dividends to a shareholders, only once in two None of this made for a more stable work environment attracts that seem close to failure. And here was another domino falling for black jockies. Next slide please. And as America moved into the 20th century there were more white writers seeking the scarce mounds long held cultural belief in the south was a black man simply made better rock jockies. There was an expectation from one southern stable owner who said the black man were, quote, much more apt around the racing stable. They learn more quickly. They get along better with their mounts. And now we come to what might have been the most important factor. He added that black jockies also work cheaper. Life and the innate superiority of black writers begins to erode as days of slavery fades farther into the past. And by 1900 articles such as one titled quote no more Negro jockies unquote in the Chicago Tribune are increasingly stating that the time of the black jockies passed that particular article noted that quote, few of the southern stables and play exclusively black help nowadays, when they want exercise writers, the trainers almost invariably see white lads for the work. And of course fewer opportunities in the stables and particularly in the crucial role of exercise writer, where so many jockies get their start met fewer African American writers being prepared for the future. So we've got this under these circumstances, where do you find role models and teachers for young African American men thinking about becoming drunken increasingly, you simply don't. And there's another domino falling down sadly down. Next slide please. Black jockies began to find that their own continuing success was a factor that those increasingly prevalent white jockies were finding unacceptable. In the face of too good for their own good as African American jockies continue getting mounts and winning races we see the beginnings of what today would be called backlash on the part of their white competitors. White jockies increase their efforts to overcome through legal and other means, they're African American rivals. They use intimidation tactics form white jockies unions physically attack their black rivals. And directly to horse owners and trainers that they employ only white jockies, or else in 1939 racing history. Excuse me, in 1839 racing historian Charles Palmer discussing this history describes some of the tactics as follows, and please bear in mind that these are farmers words not mine and that his objectionable phrases are from a day and age, when the nice voices of speech were not always observed. So Palmer wrote a black boy would be pocketed thrust back in a racer his mouth will be bumped out of contention, or a white boy would run alongside slip a foot a lot foot under a black boy stirrup and toss him out of under the saddle. Again, while ostensibly whipping their own horses those white fellows would slash out and cut the nearest Negro rider. And quote, my goodness, as one writer phrased it, there was race war on the tracks. Next slide please. There were fewer racing plantations after the Civil War with and with the plantation system greatly diminished an important source of training for black jockies simply went away. Freed slaves leaving the South for work or education or just to escape their old lives encountered an increasingly industrialized society with very little interest in training young black men to ride horses. The result is fewer learning opportunities fewer and less well prepared black jockies and yet another domino fell. I feel the need to add here that no one in his right mind would suggest that slavery. In any sense, is a positive think of slavery and you envision pure evil, but the South pre Civil War plantations did train jockies and after the after the war. That resource was no longer available. And those young black men who might have been pointed toward the racetrack pursuit other paths instead, and the number of black jockies was driven further downward. Next slide please. That's good. Even the ages of some black jockies became a negative factor in pre emancipation times black youngsters were rushed out to horseback sometimes as pre teens to take advantage of their light weights. What's interesting is that the practice of using very young very late black jockies persisted beyond his slavery. It's a tradition that somehow died hard. It's no condition, no coincidence then that the youngest derby winning jockies are all African American Alonzo Lonnie Clayton was the youngest derby winning jockey ever at age 15. He's the one shown in this picture. And he doesn't look 15 to me maybe he does to you. But this picture was taken at about the time he won the 1892 derby. He was a few months older when he won aboard helmet in 1895, but still shy of his 16th birthday. 1877 derby winning jockey William Walker had made his first start at age 11, and was riding stakes caliber horses by age 15. He won his derby aboard bottom bottom in 1877 as a very young 17 year old. One experience that many of us share is that as we leave childhood behind, we grow taller and heavier jockies who had been hoisted into the saddle as teenagers were not exempt from this. And as fewer and fewer African American writers entered the profession due to the causes we've been discussing some of the successfully under black jockies when the process about growing the saddle. Oliver Lewis retired from writing shortly after his derby went at age 19 or 20. So Perkins turned to training by 1905 when he was 26. Willie Sims retired from retired from the satellite age 31 by 1900 Lonnie Clayton was planning to ride in Europe where the horses carried higher weights in the sport still welcome black jockies. But somehow, he made a stop in California instead. It was there at about age 23 that he began his next career as a bellhop. Next slide please. The owners and trainers and their dependence on their horses to pay the rent we had another factor working against black jockies. As white jockies continued employing harsh and sometimes dangerous tactics in their efforts to defeat the African American rather African American rivals owners and trainers found it increasingly perilous to employ black jockies. The potential for injuries to the horses was immense white jockies were known to line their horses up across the track, blocking the entire the entire track and team up to prevent a black jocky from going by. We've already heard from Charles Palmer about other tactics white jockies would employ against their black challengers and sometimes both the rider and the horse would go down. Sometimes they wouldn't get back up again. Whatever they may have felt about the justice or injustice of the situation horsemen were naturally inclined toward emphasizing the safety of their horses above all else. And this meant a forced switch from black jockies to white and yet another domino fell for African American riders. Next slide please. Next slide. And finally, I must focus on the effects of racism. As said and done, the downfall of the black jocky begins centuries earlier with the enslavement of one race by another. This created the mistaken idea that the enslaving race might somehow be superior to the race that was enslaved. As we're all aware, issues of racism endured in America to the present day. The competition between jockies for more and better amounts is an ongoing element of the so called sport of Kings. It was there from day one and continued today. In the days when black jockies were being driven from the sport, this inevitable competition term racial white on black violence black on white retaliation and a political and economic environment that favored the majority race over the minority. And for all of the reasons we've noted black jockies were driven out of the sport, and with the exception of a courageous handful they never came back. And yes, for the sport of racing. It is seriously an ongoing tragedy. Last of my slides. But before I conclude I'd like to read you the short final chapter of the Kentucky Derby 13 black jockies one shady owner and the little red horse that wasn't supposed to win. This chapter is titled, it could have been different. It didn't have to be this way. It required a perfect storm of causes to create the tragedy that was and remains the nearly wholesale disappearance of black jockies from American racetracks. The storm of causes might have been a burden, had only a few good people stepped forward to intervene had a few more stewards responded with fine suspensions were the ultimate threat, ruling aggressors off the turf altogether. When jockies have either race committed intentional fouls African American jockies might have felt that their lives were being protected and that their careers are being treated seriously. Maybe they would have stayed in the sport had a handful of racing commissions refused to be cowed by owners and trainers and jockies who wanted black writers out of what was, in their view, a white man sport, granting license to applicants on the basis of demonstrated skill in the saddle whether than on the basis of race African American writers may have noted that their right to earn a living was being protected. Maybe they would have stayed in the sport. Had a few Supreme Court justices ruling on the Plessy versus Ferguson case had the foresight to recognize in 1896 what the Earl Warren court did in the 1954 Brown versus Board of Education decision, namely that separate facilities for the races are equally unequal, then perhaps the momentum of viewing non white individuals as inherently inferior might have been staunched, and perhaps black writers now recognizes morally and equally, the equal morally and legally the equal of their white counterparts might have stayed in the There are dozens of instances in which the willingness to protect the rights of the races equally the refusal to fall into line with perceived public sentiment. The insistence on doing what was right rather than what was politically expedient might have encouraged African American writers to struggle on defend their heritage, continue to compete in the past time which their forefathers had for decades continued. Maybe Jimmy Winkfield and Jimmy Lee and Sue Perkins and Lonnie Clayton and Willie Sims, and their brethren would have remained in the saddle remained in America, and maybe following their time, a new young exciting generation of African American athletes would have found its way into racing, maybe more than a tiny handful would still be in the sport today. This happened in black jockeys found themselves driven from the turf. Other sports were open to the concept that athletes of diverse races should be alive and competing equally and baseball football basketball track and field soccer black athletes have flourished, even such upper class sports as golf tennis and figure skating have had their skating have had their black champions. Some sports needed time and what might be called moral persuasion to reach the conclusion that including other races in the mix improves the product. But in the end America's major sports for integrated and became better for it, but horse racing never provided the necessary protection, never provided the encouragement never made the rulings that might have kept the great black athletes in the game. African Americans left as a group and they never returned. And now but for a very, very few, they are gone. Thank you very much. And if you have questions, I'll be happy to try and