Lewis, Oliver

Source:

 African American National Biography

Lewis, Oliver

(c.1863–?),

jockey, was born the son of a slave woman sometime during the period shortly before the Emancipation Proclamation. There is little known today about the early years of Lewis, who grew up to become one of the most renowned African American jockeys in horse racing history. Using other accounts and histories from the period, however, speculation about how Lewis came to be such an adept horseman is possible.

After the Civil War, sharecropping replaced slavery as a means for plantation owners to maintain control over their newly liberated charges. Some of these sharecroppers were used as stable hands and exercise boys for the plantation owners' racehorses. The most proficient of these boys (for most of them were barely fourteen or fifteen) were chosen as jockeys, a highly desirable position. Even during slavery times, the title of “jockey” allowed an African American many freedoms that were refused his fellows. African American jockeys both during and after the Civil War were given relative freedom to travel, as well as a sense of dignity and even superiority that was denied most other blacks of the time.

Therefore, it is not difficult to imagine that a mother would hope to provide her son with such advantages by bringing him to the attention of a wealthy racehorse owner. Oftentimes a woman employed by one of these men would bring her son along with her to work. During the course of the mother's workday, the boy would occupy himself, playing in the vicinity of the manor house where his mother performed her duties. The plantation owner might take notice of a particularly agile or strong individual. From there the boy went to live in the owner's stable, sleeping with the horses, caring for them, and developing instincts about the animals that most people today can barely comprehend. By the age of ten or eleven years old, these boys were expert horsemen and spent their days exercising and training the powerful, high-strung racehorses.

Under such circumstances, a few of these young men earned the chance to become jockeys. However, even among these competent horsemen, there were standouts. One such standout was Oliver Lewis. Lewis rode for the McGrathiana stud farm, which was owned by H. Price McGrath. Also employed by McGrath was a trainer named Ansel Williamson. Williamson, born into slavery in Virginia in 1806, was eventually bought and freed by a prominent horse breeder, Robert A. Alexander. Williamson worked for Alexander, buying and training racehorses until Alexander's death in 1867. He then went on to work at McGrathiana, training many famous racehorses as well as developing the young exercise boys into skilled jockeys. Lewis flourished under Williamson's tutelage.

In addition to working for McGrath, Lewis was also employed as a utility rider at inaugural events for the Louisville Jockey Club. On 17 May 1875 Lewis won three races. One of these was the most significant race of his life. Ironically, it was also the race that he was not supposed to win.

H. Price McGrath had two horses entered in the inaugural running of the Kentucky Derby. The horse upon which his optimism rested was a large bay named Chesapeake. His other horse was a smaller chestnut named Aristides. McGrath made the decision that Aristides would be his “rabbit.” He would use the speedy horse to tire the others early in the race, leaving room for the late-closing Chesapeake to take the lead near the end. The trainer Ansel Williamson suggested that Lewis should ride Aristides, since he was one of the few jockeys able to hold back the fiery red horse.

The parade to the post, which began the race, found Lewis as one of thirteen African American jockeys in a field of fifteen horses. When the gates opened, beginning the race, McGrath's favorite, Chesapeake, got off to a slow start. As the race progressed, Lewis had all that he could handle trying to hold back the determined Aristides. Meanwhile, Chesapeake never seemed to recover from his poor start. Owner McGrath, seeing the prospect of Chesapeake's victory fading, ordered wildly from the sidelines for Lewis and Aristides to “Go on!” (Saunders and Saunders, 14). This command was all the impetus that horse and rider needed. Lewis gave Aristides free rein, and the pair won the derby, traveling the mile-and-a-half distance in a record time of 2 minutes and 373⁄4 seconds. McGrath won $2,850 for this race, while Lewis's prize, if any other than the satisfaction of winning, is unknown.

Just a month after his derby win, Lewis was again set up on Aristides as the “rabbit.” (It appears that, in most of his races for McGrath, Lewis was used as the “rabbit” rider). This time Lewis and Aristides were to race in the famed Belmont Stakes, one of the jewels in racing's celebrated Triple Crown. As the race commenced, Lewis held his mount back, obeying the explicit orders of the horse's owner. The horse strained to have his head, and the crowd shouted their disapproval, but Lewis kept the horse from taking the lead. Later, when Aristides won the Jerome Stakes and the Withers Stakes in New York, a white jockey, Bobby Swim, not Lewis, rode the tenacious little horse to victory. McGrath, it is reported, favored Swim because of his greater experience.

The remainder of Lewis's career as a jockey is largely unknown. Records indicate, however, that after his racing career, he went on to work as a bookkeeper and later as a racehorse trainer in Lexington, Kentucky. In 1907 a newspaper reporter spotted Lewis at Churchill Downs, the site of the Kentucky Derby. An article in the following day's newspaper related Lewis's appearance as something quite unusual. Interestingly, no one is sure how often Lewis returned to the derby. Perhaps he was a regular attendant, making his visits clandestinely, or maybe he intentionally avoided the site of his most famous race.

After Lewis's derby, fifteen of the twenty-eight following derbies were won by African American jockeys, with some of them, such as James Winkfield and Isaac Murphy, winning more than once. However, African Americans were slowly being pushed out of the sport. White jockeys, resentful of their success, frequently resorted to dangerous and illegal practices to ensure that black jockeys no longer won races. African American jockeys were cut off, blocked in, jostled, and knocked off their horses to ensure their defeat. Consequently, these actions made horse owners reluctant to hire black jockeys. Eventually, black jockeys all but disappeared from the horseracing world. However, their legacy still remains.

processed xml | source xml