Outside the Worcester Public Library stands a bronze of Marshall "Major" Taylor, the cyclist who became world sprint champion in 1899 and one of the first Black international sports stars. Taylor lived in Worcester for nearly twenty years and is buried in the city, but he died nearly forgotten in Chicago in 1932. The monument is a recent corrective.
The statue captures him in mid-race, hunched over the bars of his bike. A plaque tells the basic story — born in Indianapolis in 1878, world champion at 21, retired at 32 after a career of being barred from American tracks because of his skin colour, dead in poverty at 53. It is a quiet, dignified piece in a quiet downtown corner.