The History of Boundary-Breaking Black Jockey Isaac Murphy

One of the first famous Black athletes in the United States was Isaac Murphy, who was born enslaved in 1861 and rose to become one of the greatest jockeys in horse racing history. Horse racing was the most popular sport in this country in the 1800s, and Murphy won three Kentucky Derbies during his career. On the eve of the 149th Kentucky Derby, Katherine C. Mooney, professor of history at Florida State University and author of the new book, Isaac Murphy: The Rise and Fall of a Black Jockey, joins to tell us more about the life of Isaac Murphy.