Run for the roses: FSU professor reflects on history of the Kentucky Derby

All eyes are on Churchill Downs this week as the horse racing industry prepares for the 148th Kentucky Derby.

Associate Professor of History Katherine Mooney is available to provide expert commentary to reporters covering the event. Mooney is the author of “Race Horse Men,” which examines the generations of Black men who built the racing industry and who were ultimately driven from their jobs with the rise of Jim Crow laws.

Katherine Mooney, associate professor of history, College of Arts and Sciences kcmooney@fsu.edu

“In the past few years, the Kentucky Derby has been shadowed by the pandemic, civic protests, national and international economic and political crises. But the Derby has faced many similar crises in its long history, and, almost 150 years after it was first run, it is still the greatest two minutes in American sports.”