At the end of the 19th century, Jim Crow laws still separated blacks from whites, and the excesses of the Gilded Age created an elite upper class. Major Taylor, a young black man, wanted to compete in the nation's most popular and mostly white man's sport, cycling. Birdie Munger, a white cyclist who once was the world's fastest man, declared that he could help turn the young black athlete into a champion. Taylor faced racism at nearly every turn. Kranish shows how Taylor indeed became a world champion, traveled the world, was the toast of Paris, and was one of the most chronicled black men of his day. -- adapted from jacket