Roots 101 celebrates Black horsemen before Derby

The Sankofa Players, including Courtney Moriah pictured above, performed several songs at the “Our Salute to Black Horsemen” event hosted by Roots 101 African American Museum on April 25.

LOUISVILLE — In anticipation of the Kentucky Derby taking place in Louisville, Roots 101: African American Museum hosted an event on April 25, highlighting the history of Black horsemen and their impact on the horse racing industry, both in Kentucky and globally.

Jessica Lanier, Miss Jefferson County, spoke at the event on April 25 noting the importance of Black people in the horseracing industry being more prominent and sharing in the revenue of the industry.

Miss Jefferson County, Jessica Lanier, was excited to be present at the “Our Salute to Black Horsemen,” having grown up working around horses as her father was in the horse breeding industry.

“It’s not a lot of people that look like us in this industry, but starting today, we're going to be more prominent in this industry,” she said, “We’re not just going to celebrate and have fun. We're going to be a part of that revenue coming in and generational wealth.”

Lamont Collins, founder of Roots 101, shared a similar sentiment to Lainer in his desire for Black people in the horse industry to be recognized and compensated for their work. 

“Black people love Derby because Black jockeys and Black racers were winning,” Collins said.

Collins noted that a Black jockey has not won the Derby since 1902. It was when Black people became prominent in racing that they started getting pushed out of the industry.

“They said if there was more than eight black jockeys in the race. They just wouldn't bet that's how bad it got,” Collins said.

The event featured two historians, Terry Thomas and Wallace Howard, who spoke about their experience as individuals and within their niche in the industry.

For several decades, Thomas has been a farrier, a specialist in caring for horse hooves requiring blacksmith skills. 

For 21 of his years as a farrier, Thomas worked with WinStar Farm, a Versailles horse breeding and racing farm. There, Thomas was able to work with a variety of champion horses, including Kentucky Derby winners Justify and Always Dreaming.

“I had the opportunity to do some great horses,” Thomas told the audience, “Horse after horse after horse  – if I start naming all of them champion horses over at WinStar, we’d be here all night.”

Lamont Collins (left) and Terry Thomas (right) sit in front of the audience at the Roots 101 event on April 25.

Though growing up in a family that worked in the horse industry, Thomas wasn’t interested in the field until he was 33 years old, when he touched his first horse.

Thomas is dyslexic, which made school and reading difficult as a child, often getting passed on to the next grade for behaving well rather than receiving the necessary support to learn. It wasn’t until his 60s that Thomas realized he could read.

“I learned how to read in the barn,” Thomas said, talking about learning throughout the course of his apprenticeship and work in being a farrier.

So the building of confidence through the horse industry was about more than being a good farrier; it was about his ability to succeed in life.

“If I could ever learn how to trim a horse, despite all of my disability, I would be okay, and I knew that, and I stuck with it,” Thomas said. “It gave me all the confidence in the world,” 

Howard spoke to the crowd about his business in horse betting and as a bloodstock agent. For him it has been a lucrative business. 

“There’s big money in the racetrack,” Howard said

The audience was provided with live music throughout the evening, with five performers from The Sankofa Players taking turns to sing a song, each song with its own significant meaning, such as Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit,” and a new take on “My Old Kentucky Home.”

Sankofa is a concept from the Akan people of Ghana that explores the past in order to move forward. 

The Roots 101 website stated The Sankofa Players “honor the voices of our ancestors through storytelling, music, spoken word, and eye-opening performance.”

The Sankofa Players finished off the event on April 25 with a joint performance.

The first performance began with “My Old Kentucky Home,” which was sung in a nearly operatic manner that required no microphone. The song was interluded with a poetic tale of the missing historical context about slavery and injustice.

Roots 101 was created by Collins in 2020. The museum sets out to create a space that tells the untold history of Black Americans. 

The Roots 101 website described the museum as “is a place where visitors can see themselves in history, explore the African-American story in its entirety, and gain a greater understanding of the achievements, cultural contributions, and experiences of our community.”