On Friday, April 6, 1928, five black women set out to ride the 250 miles from New York City to Washington, D.C. Their journey, which took the women three days with overnight stops at Y.W.C.A’s, was so extraordinary at the time that they made it into the newspaper.
The women were an accomplished group. Leolya Nelson was the Director of Physical Education at the 137th Street Branch of the Y.W.C.A, Velma Jackson was a nurse at Gramercy Hospital, Ethyl Miller was a public school teacher, and Marylou Jackson and Constance White were both college students. The first leg of their trip was the 110 mile ride from New York City to Philadelphia, which the women completed on the first day.
Their story was uncovered by Monica Garrison, founder of Black Girls Do Bike. Garrison writes that she had never heard of the historic trip until she began her own research, which led her to find the original newspaper clipping documenting the event.
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According to comments on the Instagram post in which Garrison shared her discovery, she was not the only person who was unfamiliar with the story of these five women. One commenter wrote, “Never heard of them but I'm not surprised. We do everything.”
The 1928 Legacy Tour honors the historic ride's history while writing—and riding—the next chapter
Lead by the founder of Major Knox Adventures, Keshia Roberson, the first 1928 Legacy Tour took place in 2021. The annual event has grown in scope every year since and has a powerful mission: amplifying the legacy and buried history of these five women by riding the 250 miles from Harlem to D.C. in just three days.
Natascha Grief got her first bike shop job before she was old enough to drink. After a six-year stint as a mechanic, earning a couple pro-mechanic certifications and her USA Cycling Race Mechanics license, she became obsessed with framebuilding and decided she wanted to do that next. After Albert Eistentraut literally shooed her off his doorstep, admonishing that if she pursued framebuilding she will be poor forever, she landed an apprenticeship with framebuilder Brent Steelman in her hometown of Redwood City, CA. After that, she spent several years working for both large and not-so-large cycling brands. Somewhere in there she also became a certified bike fitter. Natascha then became a certified personal trainer and spent nine years honing her skills as a trainer and coach, while also teaching Spin. During the dumpster fire that was the year 2020, she opened a fitness studio and began contributing regularly to Runner’s World and Bicycling as a freelance writer. In 2022, she joined the staff of Bicycling as News Editor.
