For Gold & Glory.

• Author: GOULD, TODD
• Position: A short history of the Gold and Glory Sweepstakes - Brief Article

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the 1920s, like most businesses in Indiana during the time, was rigidly segregated. Though there were no "official" rules outlining segregation at the track overt prejudices sent a powerful signal to talented African-American mechanics and drivers.

In the summer of 1924, with the Ku Klux Klan in the midst of its climb to power, a group of African-American business leaders and sports promoters gathered in a small office above a local jazz club on Indiana Avenue in Indianapolis. There they planned an extravagant black autoracing event that would parallel the grandeur and pageantry of the Indy 500. Led by charismatic contractor William Rucker, the group dubbed themselves the Colored Speedway Association. They devised plans for a "Negro Racing Circuit" that spanned the Midwest, from Chicago to Cleveland, from Pittsburgh to Des Moines.

The "crown jewel" of the circuit was a 100-mile event held on the dirt track at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. Twenty-five of the nation's top African-American drivers and mechanics competed for more than $2,500 in cash, one of the largest purses in auto racing during the era. A sportswriter from the Chicago Defender wrote of the initial race on August 2, 1924, "Chocolate jockeys will spur their gas-snorting, rubber-shod speedway monsters to death-defying speeds in hopes of winning gold for themselves and glory for their race." The race was dubbed "the Gold & Glory Sweepstakes."

Each summer from 1924 through 1936, the Gold & Glory Sweepstakes attracted nearly 10,000 spectators for a day of fireworks, daredevil aviators and, of course, the fastest black auto racers in the country. The...