Born on October 29, 1953 in Cleveland, Ohio
Cheryl White became America’s first licensed Black female jockey when she was just 17 years old in her first official race on her bay filly named Ace.
“White’s story is not one of enduring triumph but of continued marginalization. The girl whose horses’ hooves beat a path for women and Black people in a sport that has historically sidelined both is virtually unknown. And her accomplishments — a more than two-decades-long career included 750 winning rides in several disciplines, according to White’s own estimates — are largely forgotten” (NY Times).
Her riding career went on for two decades where she collected 227 wins and earnings of $762,624 riding blood horses, moved to California in the mid 1970s and later took up the county fair sport of Appaloosa horse racing.
White was forced to retire due to injuries in the early 1990s. She worked as a racing steward in California, becoming the first Black woman to have the role in the state, according to racing historians. She was the first woman to win the Appaloosa Horse Club’s Jockey of the Year award, not once, but four separate times, earning her induction into its Hall of Fame in 2011 (NY Times).
Cheryl passed away at age 65 on September 20, 2019.
“Cheryl was never a great self-promoter, and wasn't concerned with the politics of racing,” her brother, Raymond White Jr., said in a press release announcing her death. "She just did her thing. She didn't understand what she had accomplished. I don't know that she understood her significance, or place in history" (Wikipedia).
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