Long before “Black excellence” became a popular phrase, the concept was on regular display. In fact, just a decade after the end of slavery, Black achievers were demonstrating that not even a legacy of American bondage and suffering could prevent them from advancing not only beyond white competitors, but to the top tiers of their chosen fields.

Oliver Lewis, who won the first Kentucky Derby in 1875, is among those recently remembered as SocialXChange Miami hosted “Derby Social Miami” on May 3. Presented in collaboration with the Black Professionals Network Miami Chapter and Black Girl Magic, the social attracted guests who helped salute the earliest Black jockeys in the Derby and traditions of fashion, food, and fun that have historically accompanied accomplishments in Black excellence.

“So about seven years ago I stumbled across a lot of Black history of the Kentucky Derby, and I was so shocked that Black jockeys were the first professional athletes of the country, as well as dominating the Kentucky Derby until whites no longer allowed them to race,” says Alexis Brown, SocialXChange founder. “And so, as I deep-dived into the history and learned so much about it, I felt, ‘What better way to celebrate our ancestors than dressing up in Derby attire with our hats and gorgeous dresses, and to watch horse racing, and to enjoy this moment?’”

Bright spring colors in sharp, tailored suits, and wide-brimmed headwear were displayed in sunny Miami on the date of the 151st Derby, held annually in Louisville. The theme “Celebrating the Black History of the Kentucky Derby” was reflected at the Carousel Club where cocktails, art, music, and other entertainment were featured throughout the event. In the spirit of the day, guests also viewed live horse-racing as others mingled and cheered for their picks in a best-dressed contest that offered prizes to the winners.

While the celebration embodied joy and revelry, the history of Black jockeys reflects a grit and determination similar to the experiences of other American trailblazers. Not only was Oliver Lewis a standout in horse-racing history, but the first 15 winners of the Kentucky Derby were Black men. Other fun and fascinating facts about the history of horse racing among people of African descent, according to the Kentucky Derby Museum and additional research, include:

• Lewis never competed in another Derby, instead becoming a legal bookmaker for the horse races, where he wrote handicapping charts that became the blueprint to such contemporary publications as Daily Racing Form.

• Ansel Williamson, a Black horse trainer, conditioned Aristides, the horse that Oliver Lewis rode when he won the 1875 Derby. Formerly enslaved, Williamson had been a trainer in Alabama and was sold to the owner of a farm, but later employed as a free man by Aristides’ owner. Following the thoroughbred’s win of the first Derby, Williamson purchased a home in Kentucky where he lived until 1881. He was honored at the 150th Derby in 2024.

• Kentucky native Jimmy Winkfield won back-to-back races, riding His Eminence in 1901 and Alan-a-Dale in 1902. Winkfield is the last Black jockey to win the Kentucky Derby in 124 years, partly due to a ban that excluded Blacks from competition. Winkfield moved to Russia in 1904 where he had even greater success as a jockey, and eventually relocated to France until he died in 1974 at age 91. He had retired from racing in 1930 and managed a racing stable with his family in the town of Maisons-Lafitte, but Nazi forces occupied France and eventually seized Winkfield’s property. They had returned to the United States for safety before his death. In 2004 he was inducted into the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame.

• Isaac Murphy was the first jockey to win the Derby on three occasions, competing consecutively in 1884, 1890, and 1891. A first-generation, free Black citizen, he became an original National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame inductee in 1955, following victories with three different horses, Buchanan, Riley, and Kingman. His Hall of Fame induction was long after his death due to illness at age 35, after becoming the only jockey to win the Kentucky Derby, the Kentucky Oaks, and the Clark Handicap in the same year, 1884.

• Raymond Daniels and Greg Harbut were co-owners of 2020 Derby contender Necker Island. Daniels was vocal about his support for the Black Lives Matter movement, in the wake of the fatal shooting of Kentucky’s Breonna Taylor, which occurred months before the Derby in 2020.