Until I recently flipped through one of the many racing books my husband checked out from the library I had never known or even thought about the existence of black jockeys. Today many jockeys are Hispanic if they belong to any minority. A few exceptions exist, but one thing is blatant, when it comes to racing under saddle in America there is a dearth of black riders. In fact, there almost seems to be an absence of black America from the thoroughbred track now. This absence starkly contrasts the ethnic makeup of tracks during the early 20th century. So, what happened?
In order to really understand what happened I plan on using historical publications and first hand interviews from tracks that I am able to visit. This will not be a short series or a fast series of posts. However, posts on this subject will be edited well and hopefully not too far apart. I plan for the series to run through this spring and summer. At the end we may have an ethnography or an ethnohistorical document. Please feel free to comment or suggest names of people to contact.
In order to really understand what happened I plan on using historical publications and first hand interviews from tracks that I am able to visit. This will not be a short series or a fast series of posts. However, posts on this subject will be edited well and hopefully not too far apart. I plan for the series to run through this spring and summer. At the end we may have an ethnography or an ethnohistorical document. Please feel free to comment or suggest names of people to contact.
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