For Gold and Glory: Charlie Wiggins and the African-American Racing Car Circuit

From Booklist
Barred from the booming sport of race-car driving, African American professional drivers developed their own circuit in the 1920s and 1930s, including the Gold and Glory Sweepstakes. In this companion book to the PBS television special, Gould recounts the glory days of the Gold and Glory and its four-time champion, Charlie Wiggins. Celebrated in the black press as "the Negro speed King," Wiggins also crusaded to overcome racial barriers in the sport during a turbulent era of segregation in Indiana, a state permeated by the influence of the Ku Klux Klan. Wiggins' genius for diagnosing car ailments just from the sound of the engines helped him secure a mechanic's apprenticeship at a time when black men were limited to janitorial work. Wiggins used that position to learn more about cars and racing, eventually influencing promoters to form the Colored Speedway Association. Gould sets Wiggins' achievements in the backdrop of a colorful era of the early development of auto racing, which was also a time of gangsters, bootleggers, and the birth of jazz. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Book Description
For Gold and Glory retraces the little-known history of The Gold and Glory Sweepstakes, a highly celebrated auto racing event for African Americans, held in Indiana and throughout the Midwest during the racial turbulence of the 1920s and '30s, when the Ku Klux Klan cast a dark shadow over the social and political landscape of the state and region. The story is told through the eyes and emotions of Indianpaolis auto mechanic Charlie Wiggins, the geatest African-American driver of the era, known in the black press as "The Negro Speed King." Set against a colorful backdrop of gangsters, bootleggers, the birth of jazz and the early history of autoracing in the United States, For Gold and Glory chronicles the tragedies and triumphs of a dedicated group of individuals who overcame tremendous odds to chase their dreams. Theirs is a uniquely American story.


About the Author
Todd Gould is the ten-time Emmy Award-winning writer and television producer of For Gold and Glory, the PBS television special on which this book is based. Gould is author of Pioneers of the Hardwood, also published by Indiana University Press.


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"During the 1920s, before athletes such as slugger Jackie Robinson, Olympic great Jesse Owens, and boxer Joe Lewis blazed new trails in the fight for equal rights, a forgotten group of African-American sportsmen risked their reputations, their careers, and even their very lives on a barnstorming motor sports tour. It was a time when heroes were measured not by the number of home runs hit or touchdowns scored, but rather by their ability to survive in an era of intense racial prejudice." "Charlie Wiggins was one of these forgotten heroes. The humble mechanic and racecar driver lived in Indianapolis, Indiana, home to the world-famous Indianapolis 500-Mile Race. When auto racing's governing body turned away the talented black driver, Wiggins helped create a national racing league for African Americans. The most widely celebrated race was the Gold and Glory Sweepstakes, an annual sporting event so grand it attracted the attention of national news agencies, as well as thousands of spectators coast to coast. Charlie was a four-time champion on the circuit, a distinction that earned him the title "the Negro Speed King."" "For more than a decade, Charlie and other black drivers dared to run a dusty gauntlet, traveling to racing events in one small mid-western town after another, steering clear of large ruts in the road as well as angry citizens who resented the presence of "coloreds" in their town. With their racecars and hopes in tow, Charlie Wiggins and other black drivers dared to face overwhelming challenges to create new opportunities for African Americans in the realm of sports." In this book, Wiggins's widow, Roberta, and the drivers, families, and other eyewitnesses to the old "Gold and Glory" races recount vivid stories of his career, such as Charlie's unexpected run-in with the KKK in Kentucky, his outrageous stunts to help promote the black racing circuit, and his strange relationship with the notorious gunman John Dillinger. Set against the colorful backdro


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