At the first Kentucky Derby on May 17, 1875, with 10,000 spectators watching, a Black jockey born into slavery raced a chestnut colt to victory, beating the pack by two lengths and ushering in a golden age for African American horsemen, who would dominate U.S. horse racing for decades.

The sprint by Oliver Lewis on Aristides—trained by Ansel Williamson, who was also born into slavery—set a speed record for 1.5-mile races that lasted three years and set the stage for Black jockeys to become American sports superstars. At that same inaugural Kentucky Derby, 13 of the 15 jockeys were Black. African American riders won 15 of the first 28 Kentucky Derbies.

But early in the 20th century, Jim Crow segregation laws throughout the South, combined with pressure from white jockeys, forced African American riders out of the “sport of kings” spotlight and into menial jobs as grooms and horse stall cleaners. White riders increasingly used violence on the track against their Black rivals.

“In the Jim Crow era, Black jockeys disappear,” says Chris Goodlett, senior director of curatorial and educational affairs for the Kentucky Derby Museum. “We’re often asked at the museum, ‘Where did Black horsemen go?’”

Before the Civil War, horse racing thrived largely in the South, where the plantation economy depended on enslaved laborers. They were the ones frequently charged with caring for the horses, serving as stable hands, groomers, exercise riders—and more.

“African Americans naturally became the jockeys (and trainers) of those horses,” Goodlet says. 

After the Civil War, thoroughbred horse racing and long-distance horse races became a major fixture at American racetracks almost exclusively owned by wealthy white men. Black jockeys dominated the sport, which grew in popularity at northern racetracks, where African American horsemen from the South built on their success.

Isaac Murphy, the first jockey to win three Kentucky Derbies, weighed 70 pounds when he started racing at age 14. Born into slavery in 1861, he became the highest-paid athlete of his day, earning as much as $20,000 per year (nearly $700,000 today). Murphy reportedly won 44 percent of his races, compared to the 25 percent that Goodlet says the most productive jockeys currently win. 

Though a lack of comprehensive 19th-century racing records makes it difficult to verify Murphy’s exact winning rate, the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame honored him as the first jockey elected when it opened in 1955. According to historian Katherine Mooney, author of Isaac Murphy: The Rise and Fall of the Black Jockey, he stood as “one of the first Black superstar athletes.”

Jockey Willie Simms popularized the short-stirrup riding style still used in horse racing. He started racing in 1887 and earned a reported $10,500 in 1895, which would be about $400,000 in 2025. Simms became the only African American rider to win all three Triple Crown races—and the first American jockey to win on an American horse in England.

A handful of Black trainers also found success in the late 19th century. Born into slavery, Dudley Allen earned renown as one of two leading trainers at Churchill Downs and the only African American to own a horse, Kingman, that won the Kentucky Derby, in 1891. Edward Dudley Brown, himself auctioned as an enslaved boy, went on to train three Derby winners: Baden Baden in 1877, Ben Brush in 1896 and Plaudit in 1898.

Black jockeys started to be excluded from racing after states and municipalities began approving Jim Crow laws in the late 19th century and white jockeys began using intimidation and violence against their African American competitors. 

During that period, the business of the sport underwent a transition. Whereas income at early races came almost exclusively from selling tickets and concessions to spectators, that started to be eclipsed by betting receipts, which benefited everyone from track owners to jockeys. White riders wanted a bigger part of the betting income action, and the implementation of the segregation laws helped them force Black jockeys off their saddles, Goodlet says. 

The white riders often whipped Black jockeys with their riding crops and forced them into the tracks’ rails, author Joe Drape said in Black Maestro: The Epic Life of an American Legend, a 2006 biography of Jimmy Winkfield. He was the last African American rider to win the Kentucky Derby, in 1902.

“Every day a Black rider ended up in the dirt; and every day racing officials looked the other way,” Drape writes.

Amid the racism, African American horsemen all but vanished from high-profile positions in thoroughbred racing and could only get jobs as muckers who cleaned manure from stables, exercise riders, track rakers and other low-paying roles.

The lucky ones worked as grooms who oversaw the important care and exercise routines of the thoroughbreds. Among them were Will Harbut, the groom of Man ‘o War for many years, and Eddie Sweat, Secretariat’s groom.

One of the few Black jockeys later in the 20th century was James Long, who won more than 300 races, mostly in New York state, in a career that started in 1974.

The legacy of African American horsemen is preserved at the Kentucky Derby Museum with the Black Heritage in Racing exhibit and by the Ed Brown Society, named for a formerly enslaved man who became a respected jockey and trainer.

“You have that dominance of African American jockeys and trainers up to the turn of the 20th century and the misfortune of Jim Crow, then it was forgotten,” Goodlett says. “Over the last few decades, we’re seeing their return—not just as jockeys and trainers, but in all facets of the industry, including track management, stable ownership and more. It’s coming full circle.”