Black Motor Racing History: The Golden Era of Motorsports, 1910–1978

Black participation in American motorsports dates back to 1909, when then heavyweight champion Jack Johnson won several races in a Southern California race carnival. In 1910, at a time when the American Automobile Association (AAA) approved racecar driver licenses, Johnson submitted an application. It was assumed that blacks would not dare apply for such a license, since they were barred from entering official racing events in the United States, but his application was approved. When the AAA sanctioning body discovered who he actually was, they tried to rescind the license, but because of Johnson’s flamboyant tirades in the press, they stopped the process. Subsequently, the AAA threatened that all white drivers who raced against Jack Johnson would lose their professional licenses. Barney Oldfield, who was Jewish and also the best driver of the era, defied the AAA edict by participating in two match races with Johnson at Sheepshead Bay, New York, on October 25, 1910. As a result, Oldfield was banned from entering the inaugural Indianapolis 500.

Though the New York Times printed a statement covering Johnson’s victories, owing to suppression by traditionally white media outlets, and the then focus in the black community on civil-rights issues of the period, very little has been written about black participation in motorsports during its “golden age.” Were it not for the black press of the time, articles related to black auto racers and their accomplishments between 1909 and 1939 would have been absent from the annals of sports history entirely.