On July 8, the Major Taylor Cycling Club hosted an Underground Railroad Biking Tour through Downtown and the North Side. Sarah Martin, a local Underground Railroad expert and member of the Major Taylor Cycling Club, guided the tour through the “station” stops located in Downtown Pittsburgh. These included the site of the historical Monongahela House, where the free-Black staff would help slaves on the tracks to freedom; the location where early Pan-African Martin Delany published the abolitionist newspaper The Mystery; and the location of Black-owned bathhouses, oyster houses and barbershops, like the one owned by Black physician John Vashon, prepared escaping slaves as they began to travel along the Underground Railroad.
From Downtown the tour proceeded to the North Side, originally Allegheny City. Here the cyclists met up with John Ford, another local historical expert on African-American history, who guided them through the remaining stations of the tour. These final stops included how escaping slaves were given shelter and food from folks like the Brunot family living on what was once Stockton Ave, and the site of the Avery Institute, which also provided education as well as sanctuary to African Americans.
The Major Taylor Underground Railroad Bike Tour was held in conjunction with this year’s BikeFest, the annual celebration of “all things bicycling.” Bike Pittsburgh and Free Ride! provided the framework for the festivities June 29 through July 8 that sought to raise awareness of the bike as a fun, healthy and environmentally friendly way to get around, and to highlight some of the interesting things Pittsburgh has to offer (www.bike-pgh.org/event/bikefest).
In 2005, the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Minority Health created The Pittsburgh Major Taylor Cycling Club, a local effort promoting bicycling as a form of physical activity and offering its members much needed “social support” in their individual efforts to live a healthy lifestyle (visit www.cmh.pitt.edu/cycling.asp).
(First published in The NewPeople, August 2007)
