The jockeys who won the first Derbies, Louisville's Harlem and The Greatest.
The First Derbies
On May 17, 1875, Oliver Lewis rode Aristides to victory in the very first Kentucky Derby, and thirteen of the fifteen jockeys in that race were African American. Isaac Burns Murphy, one of the greatest riders in American thoroughbred racing, won the Derby three times, on Buchanan in 1884, Riley in 1890 and Kingman in 1891, and Kingman was the first horse co-owned by an African American to win it. In 1955 Murphy became the first jockey inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.
Louisville's Harlem
The Russell neighborhood is known as Louisville's Harlem. In the 1940s its streets were lined with Black theaters, restaurants and nightclubs. It is also home to the first public library in America open to African Americans, the Western Branch of the Louisville Free Public Library on 10th Street, which opened in 1908. In the 1960s urban renewal razed the area's business districts.
The Greatest
Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. was born in Louisville on January 17, 1942. At 12 he was fuming over a stolen bicycle when a Louisville police officer and coach, Joe E. Martin, steered him toward boxing. At 18 he won light heavyweight gold at the 1960 Olympics in Rome, and as Muhammad Ali he held the Ring magazine heavyweight title from 1964 to 1970 and was undisputed champion from 1974 to 1978. He died in 2016 and is buried in Louisville's Cave Hill Cemetery.
Ali and his wife Lonnie founded the Muhammad Ali Center, which opened on November 19, 2005, on the Louisville riverfront in the West Main District.
Black Louisville Today
From Russell to the riverfront, Louisville's Black history runs from the racetrack to the boxing ring, and Black-owned restaurants, salons, shops and brands are part of everyday Louisville.
Shop Black-owned businesses in Louisville on CashBlack.
Photo Credits
The entrance to the grandstand at Churchill Downs, 1976. Photo: John VanderHaagen, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons The Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville. Photo: Proof377, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons