African Americans played a significant role in the horse industry from its inception, but for years some of that information wasn’t widely shared.
Officials with the International Museum of the Horse are aiming to fix that, with a new website.
It’s called the Chronicle of African Americans in the Horse Industry.
The website was launched recently by officials with The International Museum of the Horse at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington.
Lexington resident Yvonne Giles is a research consultant for the website. She said African Americans were involved in the growth of the horse industry from its inception and that entire story wasn’t being told by mainstream media.
“African Americans are the backbone of the horse industry. They were crucial to the care, to the breeding, to the training of the thoroughbreds,” said Giles.
Giles said the goal of the website is to provide documented information about African American men and women and the contributions they made to the industry in the United States.
"Currently on the website there’s 46 personal profiles and out of those 46 we cover the period of enslavement through the present era, 2000 plus. We cover everybody from trainers to jockeys to grooms,” said Giles.
The concept of the website came about in 2018 and was fueled by the exhibit "Black Horsemen of the Kentucky Turf," at the International Museum of the Horse. Museum Director Amy Beisel said it became apparent that the exhibit could never contain all of the information about African Americans who were integral to the industry.
“We have discovered pieces of African American history that fit into the fabric of the history that we were already telling in the museum that changed the stories that we were telling in the museum,”said Beisel.
Beisel calls the project, a collaboration with community members, historians, and authors like Dr. Katherine Mooney. Mooney is a member of the advisory board. She’s also a History Professor at Florida State University and author of the book,’ Race Horse Men: How Slavery and Freedom Were Made At the Racetrack.’
Mooney said when the Kentucky Derby came around in 1875, the majority of the riders were African American and about half of the first 25 Kentucky Derbies were won by Black men. She said for the first time, Black men were athletic celebrities, very publicly inspiring other Black people.
“Starting in about 1915, I’ve been through the newspapers and the magazines, it’s extraordinary how they’re named and they’re everywhere and then almost immediately they disappear. It’s very quickly not something that white journalists and white power brokers in the sport particularly want to talk about, whether they acknowledge that or not, and I think in the end it becomes a sort of active systematic erasure,” said Mooney.
Mooney points to Greg Harbut who last year was the first African American owner in 13 years to enter a horse in the Kentucky Derby. “When his grandfather actually was the owner of a Kentucky Derby horse, he was not allowed to sit down at Churchill Downs. He was not allowed to be in the program. So he was literally erased,”said Mooney.
Harbut affirms that he spoke with his grandfather Tom Harbut on many occasions when he was living about being excluded from the 1962 Derby, even though he was the co-owner of the horse, Touch Bar. Harbut said he felt validation for his grandfather as he participated in the Derby last year.
"I thought it was redemption for my grandfather in last year’s Kentucky Derby that was really a Derby experience that I dedicated to him,” said Harbut.
Harbut said there’s a rich history of African Americans in the business. He tells how he feels about this new website.
“Just very excited that a lot of these unsung heroes are now starting to get the recognition they so deserve. I hope that with these talks and discussions this inspires more generations to come, not only of African Americans but other people of color to get into this sport,” said Harbut.
The mainstream historical narratives were often built upon the exclusion of not only African American history, but also of other marginalized communities said Derrick White, Professor of History in African American and Africana Studies at the University of Kentucky. He calls the website an essential kind of project.
"As a reminder that black folks are at the center of not only Kentucky history, but also the horse racing history and so we have a claim not only in this state but also in this industry,” said White.
Director of The International Museum of the Horse, Amy Beisel said funding for the project includes a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. She said African Americans who work or have worked in the horse industry anywhere in the United States are encouraged to contribute to the site.
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