[ARETE] Review of Race Across America, by Charles B. Kastner

Wed May 6 16:05:22 CDT 2020

All,
Please find attached and below my review of Kastner, *Race Across America:
Eddie Garner and the Great Bunion Derbies.*
Thanks,
Duncan

Kastner, Charles B. *Race Across America: Eddie Gardner and the Great
Bunion Derbies*. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2020.  Xv + 319
pp.  Maps,
illustrations, appendices, endnotes, bibliography.

Reviewed by Duncan Jamieson, Ashland University

                Racism has been a constant in American society for four
hundred one years.  In 1619 twenty Africans were sold into slavery in
Jamestown, Virginia Colony. In 1903 the civil rights activist W. E. B.
DuBois (1868-1963) wrote *Souls of Black Folk*, a classic in race relations.
Unlike his more moderate contemporary, Booker T. Washington, DuBois
demanded equality across the board, bringing the lie to the belief that
African Americans were intellectually and/or physically inferior to
Caucasians.  The African American, Eddie “The Sheik” Gardner (1897-1966),
along with many others, proved DuBois to be right with their participation
in the 1928 (Los Angeles to New York City) and 1929 (New York City to Los
Angeles) Bunion Derbies, officially the Transcontinental Foot Race Across
America.

                *Race Across America* is an interesting, stride by stride
accounting of the epic run organized by promoter (huckster?) Charley
Pyle.  Perhaps
if I were a long-distance runner, rather than a long-distance bicyclist, my
thoughts, and therefore this review, might be different.  This is a good
book, interesting and well worth the read.  However, it is not, as the
blurb at the bottom of the front cover touts, “a truly epic book!”  But
then the blurb is written by the winner of the 1992 Trans America Foot
*Race* rather than a participant in the 1991 Pedal for Power, the Trans
America Bicycle *Tour*.  Kastner has previously written a book about the
1928 race, published by the University of New Mexico Press (2007) and a
book about the 1929 race, published by Syracuse University Press
(2014).  Kastner
is a long-distance runner himself, beginning with cross country in high
school.  He has run twenty-five marathons and one ultramarathon,
accomplishments which give him a firsthand knowledge of his subject,
backing that up with an advanced degree in history.  Kastner is a Seattle
based writer, which gives him a geographic connection to Eddie Gardner, who
lived and raced most of his life in Seattle.

                Medical science was barely out of its infancy in 1928, the
year of the first bunion derby, and the year that Alexander Fleming
discovered penicillin, the first true antibiotic.  Sport science was
equally primitive, with both the medical professionals and the sports world
conflicted about the value or harm of long-distance running.  Running
equipment consisted of shorts, t-shirts and sneakers.  Many of the 199
runners who registered in 1928 with the hope of winning the $25,000 first
place prize (equivalent to $630,000 I today’s dollars), had little or
nothing in the way of support, relying on the generosity of spectators or
residents in the towns where they spent their nights.  The youngest runner,
a fifteen-year old African American, had his family following him in a
beat-up automobile.  No one had anything like the support teams that exist
today.  For the first race, with no rest days the finishers covered 3,442
miles in eighty-four days, averaging 40.7 miles a day.  The first day was
the shortest at 16 miles, while the longest came near the end when the
bunioneers covered 74.8 miles.  In 1929, veterans of 1928 and novices ran
3,554 miles in seventy-eight days, averaging 45.5 miles a day, ranging from
a short day of 21 miles to the longest at 78.5 miles.

                In the west they ran along the “Mother Road,” U. S. 66,
which was not completely paved.  Roads in the east generally had paved
surfaces.  On unpaved roads in dry conditions the dust clogged the lungs;
during rainstorms, the men ran through ankle deep mud that clung to and
weighted down their shoes.  On the other hand, hard paved surfaces
increased injuries from the relentless pounding.  Both races stepped off in
April, so runners experienced the extremes of weather.  They ran across the
Mohave Desert in blazing sun and heat, but then froze in the mountains with
snow, freezing rain and sleet.  Fierce headwinds did not deter the
committed, though the long miles, steep altitude gains and incredible
weather thinned the ranks, especially among those with no chance of prize
money.  Still many of the competitors continued to slog along for the glory
of winning.  Many ran day after day with painful and debilitating injuries.

                The most interesting and yet problematic part of the book
is the focus on several individual runners.  I’ll admit I didn’t know
anything about Eddie Gardner or the two transcontinental foot races but
based on the subtitle I assumed he was the star of the show.  Spoiler
alert—he didn’t win in 1928.  He was near the front and had won some
stages, but there wasn’t any consistency.  He finished eighth.  Then when
he came back to run in 1929, I assumed this would be the one.  A second
spoiler alert—he didn’t win in 1929 either.  In 1929 he didn’t finish,
dropping out due to a leg injury while running on a gravel road.  He ran
several more stages, but the thirty-fifth day, the 73.4-mile stage to
Muskogee, Oklahoma, finished his race.   Still, he ran nearly 1,500 miles
at a nine and one-half minute mile pace.  Throughout both races Kastner
focused on Gardner, his times, his stage finishes, including his many
firsts and his overall standing.  In both races while most of the time was
north of the Mason Dixon they did run through the southern states of Texas,
Oklahoma and Missouri where racism was rampant.  Gardner received all sorts
of death threats, likely aimed at the other African American runners as
well.  The most bizarre was a man riding a mule who followed Gardner for
miles, with a shotgun pointed at his back, threatening to shoot him if he
passed a white runner.  Unnerved, Gardner lost places and time on the front
runners until he determined it was time to take a stand for equality.  Though
he never suffered any physical harm, the threats led to mental anguish,
which was enough to put him off his pace, creating an unrecoverable loss.

                Andy Payne won the 1928 race with an average pace of 10:03
minutes per mile for 3422.3 miles.  Payne won while Johnny Salo came in
second.  In addition to second place prize money he won a job as a Passaic,
New Jersey police patrolman.  Salo won the 1929 race, averaging 8:53
minutes per mile.  Unfortunately, Charley Pyle had no money to pay the
promised $25,000, leaving Salo with nothing more than the sense of
accomplishment.

                The youngest runner in the 1928 derby was fifteen-year-old
African American Tobie Cotton, who left school to cross the country afoot,
with the hope of winning enough money to raise his family from poverty.  With
his family as his support team following in their used, beat-up auto, he
finished the race out of the money, but the people of Harlem were so
impressed at his accomplishment they bought the family a new car to drive
home.  At the time of this publication Cotton continues to be the youngest
runner to cross the country.

                There are multiple stories like this that are a part of *Race
Across America*.  The race organizer, Charlie Pyle and his second in
command, football legend Red Grange, along with the covey of runners who
might be known to aficionados, Pete Gavuzzi, Phillip Granville from the
British West Indies, Mike Joyce, Arthur Newton, Smiling Sammy Robinson,
Arne Souminen, Guisto Umek and Olli Wanttinen are only a sampling.

                If you have no knowledge of Kastner’s first two books on
the Bunion Derbies, this you will find interesting.  I don’t know if it was
the author or the publicity department at the press that determined the
subtitle, but it seems a bit disingenuous to me, as Eddie Gardner is not
really the focal point.  The other runners receive a great deal of credit
as does Charlie Pyle and the carnival he planned to entertain the locals at
each night’s stop, and how Red Grange fit into the mix.  Finally, a more
even split between the two races would be welcome, as 1929 clearly gets
short shrift.
Remember to smell the roses as you recumber past

Duncan R. Jamieson, Ph. D.
Professor of History
Book Review Editor
*AETHLON: The Journal of Sport Literature*
Ashland University
Ashland, OH  44805
USA
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