Michael Kranish

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

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