Ethics and Social Justice Center Colloquy with Honors Visiting Faculty Fellow Dr. Emily Bingham on “Reclaiming Louisville's Derby King: George Long and Bashford Manor Stable in the Era of Jim Crow” – Tuesday, April 12 at 11:00AM in CNHH 103 Honors Visiting Faculty Fellow Dr. Emily Bingham will be giving a talk sponsored by the Ethics and Social Justice Center on a fascinating but largely forgotten chapter of Derby history next Tuesday, April 12 at 11:00 AM in CNHH 103. I have been in Dr. Bingham's class before, and she is a fantastic instructor who is certain to make this event engaging and enjoyable. Below is a summary! Three Kentucky Derby winners once grazed and gamboled two miles from Bellarmine on land occupied today by Bashford Manor Mall’s big box stores and Assumption High School’s playing fields. George J. Long’s Bashford Manor Farm was a nationally known breeding operation, and Long was Louisville’s late 19th and early 20th Derby king and his story deserves telling. There is another significance to Long: his largely forgotten triumphs overlapped with the purging of black riders from U. S. thoroughbred racing. George Long’s first Derby winner, Azra (1892), was ridden by fifteen-year-old Alonzo “Lonnie” Clayton. All the Derby riders that year were Black. Clayton also rode for Long in 1893’s Derby, finishing second. The 1902 winner, Manuel crossed the finish line under a white rider, as did his horse, Sir Huon, in 1906. By that time, all Black jockeys were banned from American racing. Clayton had lost his living and the home his early successes helped him build. He was working as a bellhop at a private men’s club when he died in 1917, age 41. What happened between Clayton and Long? When and why did the partnership end? What role did racism play? Untangling the shifting relationship between these figures illuminates and complicates the workings of race and power among men who shared a deep yearning to win. I hope you will come out and hear this talk! Coffee and cookies will be served.