In Italy and France, Kentucky’s native sons are honored again | Opinion

Last September, I had the honor of representing Lexington for the eighth time at Slow Food’s Terra Madre held in Torino, Italy. This international gathering of food and agriculture protagonists is dedicated to ensuring good, clean and fair food for all.

This trip to Terra Madre 2024 was described in my August 29 Op Ed in this newspaper and entitled “Team Lexington heads to Italy to showcase horses, bourbon, and justice.”

Keeneland Library director, Roda Ferraro, collaborated with me on the theme, “Horses, Bourbon and Justice” as the focus of the Keeneland promotional flyer and other materials on our Team Lexington exhibition table. With the support of Mary Quinn Ramer of VisitLex, Department of Agriculture Commissioner Jonathan Shell, and Ashley Smith of Black Soil, our exhibition table included tourist information, KY Proud and Black farmer products along with information about the rich legacy of Black horsemen, including Jimmy Winkfield.

Before going to Italy, my partner and I went to France for five days, primarily to do the Black tours of Paris with a focus on Josephine Baker and Jimmy Winkfield. We visited the Pantheon, the nation’s mausoleum of heroes, where Josephine Baker was inducted in 2017, inspired by her courageous contributions as a spy during World War II.

Next we caught the train from Paris to Maisons-Laffitte and spent the day visiting Winkfield’s home, nearby racetrack and the local cemetery. At the Winkfield family burial site, we placed flowers alongside the book, “Black Maestro-The Epic Life of an American Legend” by Joe Drape. The simple placement of flowers and this book was our humble way of whispering to Jimmy that his legacy is being kept alive.

In his enthralling biography, Drape, a New York Times reporter, describes the epic adventures of an unlikely participant in the greatest historical events of the 20th century. As the last great Black jockey, Jimmy Winkfield was Jim Crowed out of racing in the USA during the early 1900s. But not one to be defeated, he went to Russia, served as the keeper of the Czar’s horses, fleeing the Bolshevik Revolution crossed into Poland with 200 horses and eventually wound up in France. Then during World War II, he survived the takeover and occupation by German troops of his chateau in Maisons-Laffitte outside of Paris. This is where he spent 50 years as a prominent horseman and bon vivant, and like Josephine Baker, immensely respected by his adopted country of France.

“Black Maestro” was a major point of conversation on our Team Lexington exhibition table. Also, as I carried this book in my backpack during my two weeks in France and Italy, I could easily pull it out for quick conversations about the legacy of Black horsemen which laid the foundation of why Lexington is now known as the Horse Capital of the World.

But like the Phoenix bird, Winkfield was able — time and time again—to rise above racism and revolution, fascism and forgotten legacy to navigate his epic journey as adventurous as the Odyssey. His life provides a tremendous example of resilience and courage. These are characteristics that we need even more desperately today during our challenging times with emerging fascism.

Last September, I didn’t realize that our organization, Phoenix Rising, would be inviting Drape to speak in Lexington. But that’s how these ancestral vibrations manifest themselves through us as the current stewards of this important legacy.

So, I invite others to come with us next year to France and make this pilgrimage to the Winkfield family burial site before going on to Italy for the Terra Madre gathering.

But if you can’t make that trip to Europe, then your next best option is to attend our Phoenix Rising Awards Program held Aug. 16 4pm at the Lyric Theatre where Joe Drape will share this incredible story of Lexington’s native son, Jimmy Winkfield. Tickets are available at this website: historiclyrictheatre.com.

Jim Embry, a 2023 James Beard Foundation Leadership Award winner; is a life-long community activist, historian and photographer; lives on a family farm in Madison County. He can be reached at embryjim@gmail.com.