Isaac Murphy

Isaac Burns Murphy (April 16, 1861 - February 12, 1896) was an African-American Hall of Fame jockey, who is considered one of the greatest (by many accounts, THE greatest) riders in American Thoroughbred horse racing history. Murphy won three Kentucky Derbies. Burns’s father, a free black man, was a bricklayer and his mother was a laundrywoman.  During the civil war his father … [Read more...] about Wednesday Open Thread: The History Of Black Jockeys