Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, the production of iHeartRadio. Hey, brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren Vogelbaum. Here in the United States today, only about
Speaker 1: twenty percent of motorcycle owners are women, and even that's
Speaker 1: a dramatic rise in ownership over the past decade or so.
Speaker 1: But nearly a century ago, a black woman was paving
Speaker 1: the way. If you'll forgive the pun for other women riders,
Speaker 1: Bessie Stringfield in the nineteen thirties, a time when women
Speaker 1: hadn't even had the right to vote for very long,
Speaker 1: Stringfield toured the country riding solo and supported herself performing
Speaker 1: stunts along the way. Not much as known about her
Speaker 1: early childhood, as she was born in nineteen eleven in
Speaker 1: the American southeast, perhaps North Carolina. She received her first
Speaker 1: motorcycle from her mother at age sixteen, a nineteen twenty
Speaker 1: eight Indian scout, though she didn't yet know how to
Speaker 1: ride before the article. This episode is based on how
Speaker 1: Stuff Work. Spoke with Anne Farrar, a journalist and the
Speaker 1: author of springfields biography titled African American Queen of the Road.
Speaker 1: Farar said quote, God taught her how to ride in
Speaker 1: a dream. However, she learned it wouldn't have been easy.
Speaker 1: A nineteen twenty eight scout probably weighed over seven hundred
Speaker 1: pounds or three hundred kilos, and Stringfield was only about
Speaker 1: five to five that's around one point six meters tall.
Speaker 1: You have to be pretty fit to handle a bike
Speaker 1: that big, especially when you don't have the leverage that
Speaker 1: a little bit more height gives you. But in nineteen thirty,
Speaker 1: at the age of nineteen, Stringfield took off on that
Speaker 1: scout on her first solo tour, a ride without any
Speaker 1: route or destination plan. She tossed a coin over a
Speaker 1: map and rode to the location where it landed. And
Speaker 1: she did this without the benefit of today's interstate highway
Speaker 1: systems of neatly paved roads, and nor did she have
Speaker 1: roadside service. If something broke down. She had to be
Speaker 1: both rider and mechanic and contend with that heavy scout
Speaker 1: on gravel and sand. At the time, it was very
Speaker 1: rare for women to ride, and she was a black
Speaker 1: woman transversing the Jim Crow South pre civil rights era.
Speaker 1: Ferrar said that Stringfield faced discrimination along the way and
Speaker 1: was turned away from motels and forced to sleep on
Speaker 1: her bike instead. Neither easy nor comfortable She was threatened
Speaker 1: on occasion, and one time was intentionally run off the
Speaker 1: road by a white man in a pickup truck. Ferar
Speaker 1: said the Bessie's superpower was her ability to not focus
Speaker 1: on struggle, but rather in how she reacted to each
Speaker 1: situation and each individual. Bessie was too modest to see
Speaker 1: herself as particularly special. That first ride at age nineteen
Speaker 1: was only the beginning of her two wheeled independence. Between
Speaker 1: the nineteen thirties and her death in nineteen ninety three,
Speaker 1: a Stringfield wound up riding solo across the United States
Speaker 1: in eight separate trips, the first woman to ever do so.
Speaker 1: She supported herself by performing motorcycle stunts at fairs, including
Speaker 1: the Wall of Death, in which a large wooden cylinder
Speaker 1: is constructed and while viewers watch from the top, motor
Speaker 1: cyclists ride so fast that they climbed the vertical walls.
Speaker 1: Stringfield also competed in flat track races, riding over oval
Speaker 1: dirt tracks. One story recounts how she was denied prize
Speaker 1: money after removing her helmet and revealing that she was
Speaker 1: a woman. She even used her riding talents and service
Speaker 1: to her country, a country that was still segregated as
Speaker 1: a civilian courier in the early nineteen forties. During World
Speaker 1: War Two, she carried mail and documents between bases for
Speaker 1: the US Army. She was the only woman in an
Speaker 1: all black unit. By the nineteen fifties, Stringfield settled in Miami,
Speaker 1: where she became a licensed practical nurse and founded the
Speaker 1: Iron Horse Motorcycle Club. She was known around town for
Speaker 1: riding her bike to work in church, though, according to
Speaker 1: a feature in the June nineteen ninety six issue of
Speaker 1: American Motorcyclist magazine, she was initially given a hard time
Speaker 1: by local police. She went to see the Captain, who
Speaker 1: challenged her to a series of tricks and figure eights,
Speaker 1: which she performed with ease. Stringfield got her license and
Speaker 1: the her rassment stopped. She eventually became known as the
Speaker 1: motorcycle Queen of Miami. During her six decades of riding,
Speaker 1: Stringfield owned twenty seven Harley Davidson motorcycles and rode more
Speaker 1: than a million miles, hitting all forty eight of the
Speaker 1: continental United States, a plus one on motorcycle trips in Brazil, Europe,
Speaker 1: and Haiti. While Stringfield may not appear to have had
Speaker 1: a direct influence on the civil rights movement, she perhaps
Speaker 1: unknowingly empowered those around her. Ferrar said Bessie made an
Speaker 1: impression on people in her community, who were proud of
Speaker 1: her and always pleased to see this independent black woman
Speaker 1: on a Harley riding around town. A. Ferrara met Stringfield
Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety at the American Motorcycle Association's Motorcycle Heritage Museum.
Speaker 1: Stringfield was seventy nine years old and part of the
Speaker 1: inaugural exhibit Women in Motorcycling, and Farrar was then a
Speaker 1: newly minted biker. The two women became friends, and Stringfield
Speaker 1: asked Ferrar to write her biography. Ferrar recorded numerous conversations
Speaker 1: with Stringfield during her final three years so she could
Speaker 1: help others recognize her achievements. In the year two thousand,
Speaker 1: the American Motorcycle Association began giving the Bessie Stringfield Award
Speaker 1: to women leaders in motorcycling, and in two thousand and two,
Speaker 1: Bessie was inducted posthumously into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame.
Speaker 1: The writer of the article that this episode is based on,
Speaker 1: Sherise Cunningham, is a woman motorcyclist herself I don't ride.
Speaker 1: The things in this episode about the physical difficulty of
Speaker 1: writing are from her. I wanted to end this one.
Speaker 1: Quoting Scherise on why she wrote this piece, she said
Speaker 1: Stringfield was a rule breaker, an icon, an adventurer, a
Speaker 1: free spirit who managed to live her life on her
Speaker 1: own terms. I never gave much consideration to the fact
Speaker 1: that had it not been for the bravery and boldness
Speaker 1: of someone like Stringfield, I might not be able to
Speaker 1: zip around relatively unscathed on America's highways as a woman.
Speaker 1: Learning her story has made an indelible impression on me,
Speaker 1: and I don't think I'll ever be able to sit
Speaker 1: astride my Harley again without thinking of all she gave me.
Speaker 1: Countless other women of any race who enjoy riding with
Speaker 1: knees in the wind. Today's episode is based on the
Speaker 1: article Hidden History on two Wheels, The Story of Bessie
Speaker 1: Springfield on HowStuffWorks dot com, written by Shrees Cunningham. Brainstuff
Speaker 1: is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership with how stuffworks
Speaker 1: dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. For more
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