Into the Bluegrass America Bourne Seizing Freedom From the Silence and the Darkness, 1865-1869 The New Order of Things, 1870-1874 Learning to Ride and Taking Flight, 1875-1880 An Elegant Specimen of Manhood, 1881-1889 In This Peculiar Country, 1890
Pellom McDaniels III is faculty curator of African American Collections and assistant professor of African American Studies at Emory University, USA. He was awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship to complete this book.
"McDaniels has written a sweeping narrative of national history,
using Murphy to symbolize the fate of successful African Americans
-- a fate resulting from "a view of race... so entrenched in the
white American imagination that it is visible even in the
twenty-first century, as evidenced by the public reaction of
some... to the election of the nation's first African American
president, Barack Hussein Obama". The result is a rich,
multidimensional history of African American life between the
antebellum period and the early twentieth century." -- Reviews in
American History
"Like its subject, The Prince of Jockeys is layered and thoughtful,
an accessible read that demonstrates how an extraordinary man's
life reflected the complex struggles of African Americans in the
late nineteenth century." -- Ohio Valley History
"Pellom McDaniels III brings a vivid depth and scope to a forgotten
legend in sports history." -- The Atlanta Voice
"A persuasive blend of storytelling and historical analysis, this
is an enlightening account for horsemen, sports lovers, and
historians of post Reconstruction-era American race relations.
Pellom McDaniels' success is that he brings into sharp relief the
devolving social and cultural context of African-American jockey
Isaac Burns Murphy's childhood, apprenticeship, and career. The
author convinces the reader of Murphy's personal discipline and
singular achievements--enabled despite an increasingly hostile
environment by the support of family and the larger
African-American community's commitment to the project of
self-advancement." -- Myra Young Armstead, Bard College
"In The Prince of Jockeys, McDaniels provides the first definitive
biography of Mr. Murphy, whose life spanned the Civil War,
Reconstruction and the adoption of Jim Crow legistlation. Despite
the obstacles he faced, Mr. Murphy became an important figure - not
just in sports, but in the social, political and cultural
consciousness of African Americans. McDaniels discusses how Mr.
Murphy epitomized the rise of the black middle class and
contributed to the construction of popular notions about African
American identity, community and citizenship during his lifetime."
-- Aegis
"McDaniels provides the first definitive biography of Mr. Murphy,
whose life spanned the Civil War, Reconstruction and the adoption
of Jim Crow legislation." -- baltimoresun.com
"Pellom McDaniels stitched together the compelling facts and lost
details of Isaac Burns Murphy's life so artfully, I felt as if I
were there living it with him. Anyone who is striving to understand
how and why professional athletics tends to function as a
bellwether for racial change in America, good or bad, must read
this book." -- Sonya Ross, Race and Ethnicity Editor for the
Associated Press
"We have waited a long time for a scholar to pull together the
story of Isaac Murphy and nineteenth-century American and Kentucky
life with the exquisite interpretation that Pellom McDaniels offers
in this manuscript..This work is path-breaking for the detailed
study it offers into the texture and layers of life in Lexington,
particularly black Lexington, during the post-Civil War decades and
into the Gilded Age." -- Maryjean Wall, author of How Kentucky
Became Southern: A Tale of Outlaws, Horse Thieves, Gamblers, and
Breeders
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