Champions To Dedicate Major Taylor Monument

Three-time Tour de France winner GREG LeMOND and three-time Olympic medalist EDWIN MOSES will be featured speakers at the public unveiling of the Major Taylor memorial from noon to 1 p.m. Wednesday, May 21, 2008, at the Worcester Public Library.

For details click here or follow links from the Events page here

LeMond, who won a world championship in cycling 90 years after Major Taylor did, and Moses, who dominated the 400-meter hurdles in track and field for a decade, were each named “Sports
Illustrated Sportsman of the Year” at the height of their athletic careers in the 1980s.

The statue of the “Worcester Whirlwind” created by Sculptor Antonio Tobias Mendez is Worcester’s first monument to an African-American. The dedication ceremony will be followed by a reception with 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 library. At 7 p.m. May 21 at the library, the Clark University History Department and Higgins School of Humanities will present a panel discussion on “Race, Sports, and Major Taylor’s Legacy.” Boston Globe columnist Derrick Z. Jackson will be moderator for these scholars, historians and authors exploring diversity in sports and society, then and now:

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

For Major Taylor books, posters and jerseys, click here

P.S. to out-of-towners: The Hilton Garden Inn on Major Taylor Boulevard is offering a special discount for guests attending the Major Taylor dedication May 21. To get the special rate, call the Worcester hotel directly at 508-753-5700, not the chain’s toll-free reservations number, and say you’re coming for the Major Taylor statue dedication. A block of rooms will be held until April 21.

For airport shuttle we recommend Knight’s, tell them you were referred by the Major Taylor Association.

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