May 12, 2008
‘Sports, Race, and Major Taylor’s Legacy’
Clark participates in May 21 panel discussion about historic bicycling champion
The Clark University History Department and the Higgins School of Humanities will present "Sports, Race, and Major Taylor's Legacy," a panel discussion, at 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 21, in the Saxe Room of the Worcester Public Library, 3 Salem Square. The event is part of the Major Taylor Association’s daylong tribute to 1899 world cycling champion Marshall W. "Major" Taylor.
The tribute includes the unveiling of the Major Taylor monument at the public library. The statue of "the Worcester Whirlwind" created by Maryland sculptor Antonio Tobias Mendez is Worcester's first monument to an African-American.
Boston Globe columnist Derrick Z. Jackson will be moderator of the panel discussion exploring diversity in sports and society, then and now. The panelists are:
- Andrew Ritchie, author of the biography "Major Taylor: The Extraordinary Career of a Champion Bicycle Racer" (1988);
- Janette T. Greenwood, associate professor of history at Clark University, author of a case study of Worcester County's black community in the late 1800s and of "Bittersweet Legacy," on the emergence and interaction of the black and white middle class;
- David V. Herlihy, author of "Bicycle: The History" (2004), with research on Major Taylor's popularity abroad;
- C. Keith Harrison, associate professor of sports business management at the University of Central Florida, and associate director of the Institute for Diversity & Ethics in Sport.
Three-time Tour de France winner Greg LeMond and three-time Olympic medalist Edwin Moses will be the featured speakers at the unveiling and dedication of the Major Taylor monument at noon May 21 at the Worcester Public Library. The ceremony will be followed by refreshments in the library's Banx Room. Preceding the noontime ceremony, the Seven Hills Wheelmen and the Charles River Wheelmen's Wednesday Wheelers will lead a 30-mile bicycle ride starting and ending at the public library.
For further information, contact , Janette T. Greenwood, 508-793-7286, or Lynne Tolman, info@majortaylorassociation.org, 508-831-0301. Details are online at the Events page at www.majortaylorassociation.org .