Two of the most influential and talented Black horsemen in the history of Thoroughbred racing will be represented at this Friday’s induction for the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame class of 2024. Jockey Abe Hawkins will be inducted, and the importance of jockey/trainer Ed Brown will also be invoked by two men representing the Ed Brown Society, named for the 19th-century horseman who was himself inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1984.

Known mostly as “Abe,” with no existing information about how he ended up being called “Hawkins,” the jockey was born enslaved, with no birthdate or birthplace recorded. He worked on a sugar plantation called Ashland in Louisiana, an estate owned by Duncan Kenner. Believed to have enslaved more than 600 people, Kenner was also active in the Confederate Congress during the Civil War and in Thoroughbred racing, his name enshrined in a stakes race held annually at Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans. (A Kenner Stakes was also held at Saratoga Race from 1870 to 1942).

According to Katherine Mooney’s indispensable and essential “Race Horse Men: How Slavery and Freedom Were Made at The Racetrack,” Abe was purchased by Kenner for more than $2,300 in 1853. Abe was already well-known as a jockey by then, characterized by Mooney as the most famous horsemen of his generation, “nothing less than a national figure.” Contemporary newspaper articles about racing didn’t usually mention jockeys’ names, but Abe was an exception, and his noteworthy victories include the inaugural Jerome Stakes at Jerome Park, the Jersey Derby and the Travers Stakes, all in 1866.

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