Experts Next Door: I Ride to Win: Isaac Murphy and Civil War America
Isaac Murphy won three Kentucky Derbys and every other major American stakes race of the nineteenth century. He was among the jockeys inducted into the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame in its inaugural class. He was also born enslaved in 1861, the son of a Civil War widow, and he lived through the violent conflicts of Reconstruction to become the first true superstar Black athlete in the United States. This talk examines Murphy’s life and career and the light it sheds on his sport and the history of his country.
Katherine Mooney is James P. Jones Professor of U.S. History at Florida State University and the author of Isaac Murphy: The Rise and Fall of a Black Jockey
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