Two twins become the fastest girls in New York City: Part Two

Mary’s parents understood how important it was for Mary to desegregate sports in New York City.? They knew how important it was not only for her daughter to run the race at Madison Square Garden, but how important it was for people across the city to see Black and white girls running races together.? They let William Jackson know they would have the paperwork and their daughter ready for the big race on February 15.? That morning, Mary’s mother Hattie took her to Broadway Avenue in Brooklyn, the big shopping area in the 1940s.? She bought Mary running shoes and a green jumper to wear, the typical gym uniform for women and girls during that time.?

Most importantly, she took Mary to the hairdressers.? Black women during that time were very aware of the negative, hurtful beliefs that many white Americans believed to be true about Black girls and women.? Hattie wanted everyone who saw her daughter race that day to see that Mary was just as well-dressed and respectable-looking as any other person at Madison Square Garden. She believed that every example white people saw of Black women excelling helped to undo the many years of unfair, hurtful statements that were hurled at Black women.? This expectation to be more than just Mary DeSaussure the thirteen-year-old girl, but rather a symbol of Black excellence could have put a lot of pressure on Mary.? According to Mary, the thrill of being at Madison Square Garden was amazing and she does not remember feeling the pressure to be a role model.? After a few minutes of soaking up the excitement of standing on the race track at Madison Square Garden, it occurred to Mary that she had no idea where to go or what to do.

Suddenly, Officer Jack was by her side.? He helped her turn in the paperwork her parents filled out.? The race officials pinned her racing number onto the back of her green gym jumper.? Then he said, “You come with me.” And he grabbed her arm and led her over to a table where all the medals lay.? “See these, these are the medals!” Then pointing to the gold medal he said.? “The other one [should have been] gold too, but you are going to get one here.? You are going to get your gold medal.” Mary said she was not sure. ?Officer Jack said with a determined voice, “You are! Why don’t you run around the track like all the other little girls.” Mary was not sure why they were doing that before the race.? “You jog, you get your legs warm,” he said, coaching her.? “Go jogging and when they call you up, be ready because you are going to be in the first race.? I expect things!” He said with an encouraging smile.

Mary was not the only Black girl racing that day, but she was one of just two Black girls running in the important forty-yard dash.? She would be running against Edna Colan (who was white) from Brooklyn.? Mary had outrun Edna a few weeks before at the 13th Regiment Armory in Brooklyn, but she was not given credit for her victory. Also in the race was a girl from Manhattan, and one from the Bronx.? A few weeks before thousands of girls had raced in armories across the city, now only the fastest of them all would be racing.?? The title of “fastest girl in New York City,” would now come down to this race.? Perhaps Mary’s mother Hattie wondered if racism would once again play a role in this race, or would the fresh spirit Black activist Ada B. Jackson had worked so hard to create, win the day??

Martha would not let her mother sit at the edge of the balcony high above the Madison Square Garden race track. She was afraid her mother would get too excited watching the race and fall off.? Martha would sit at the edge and report back what happened.? When the race started Hattie could see Martha jumping up and down at the edge of the balcony screaming “Come on Mary!!!”? Before thousands of people packed into Madison Square Garden that day, Mary won all three of her races.? There was no questioning this time about who won the first-place gold medal. Mary was a bit faster in running shoes compared to high-heeled shoes inside rainboots.? Her forty-yard dash was in 5.4 seconds.? She was the fastest girl in all of New York City at forty yards.? Officer Jack was so happy.? “Girl, you are going to get a gold medal today!”

Later that day, Mary and Martha, on the way to the store, went past Sumner Avenue Park.?? They ran into the park looking for William Jackson.? When they found him in the park he asked all about Mary’s day.? “Did you win?”? “Yes I did.” Said Mary.? “Wonderful! Would you like to do that again?”? Mary was interested.? “Where?”? Mary knew that the Parks Department Armory running races were the first of their kind and not something they would do again for a while.

William Jackson had a plan.? He knew that thanks to the work of Black community leader Ada B. Jackson [no relation to him], the local Gates Avenue police station, Precinct 79, was setting up a Police Athletic League.? The goal was to have policemen coach boys in basketball.? William told Mary that he would speak to Police Precinct Captain Vincent Keirnan about starting a girl's track team.? There were no girl's Police Athletic Track Teams, so William Jackson would need to convince Captain Kiernan to create the first one.? Mr. Jackson had some solid reasons why Captain Keirnan should start such a team.? Mary DeSaussure was fast.? Even without training Mary’s race times were almost as fast as the race times of the Black women’s college team at Tuskegee University in Alabama. Martha, Mary’s twin, sister was likely just as fast as Mary.? Simply by finding a few more girls who were fast on the running track, Captain Keirnan would easily have an unbeatable team.?

Mary convinced Martha to become a track athlete and together they met with Captain Kiernan and Mr. Jackson.? The police captain liked the girls and asked them to find a few other neighborhood girls who ran fast to join the team. William Jackson went to the parents of each of the runners and explained the Police Athletic League program and how it would help the girls and help the Bedford Stuyvesant community grow closer together.? Martha and Mary’s parents agreed, as long as their training and racing did not hurt their grades at school.? Academics was a top priority in the DeSaussure family.?? William DeSaussure had many talents, besides being a government worker, and a church minister, he was also a bible scholar, a poet, crochet doily maker, and loved solving calculus problems in his free time.? He expected his daughters Nellie, Mary and Martha to go to college one day.?

The track team that William Jackson and Mary DeSaussure put together was truly unique for 1945.? There were a few all-black and all-white women’s track teams around the country.? Black and white women running together on the same team was rare, maybe even non-existent.? In 1945, two years before Black athlete Jackie Robinson joined the all-white Brooklyn Dodge Baseball team, Captain Keirnan’s 79th Precinct Bedford-Stuyvesant Police Athletic League girl's track team was made up of Black and white girls from the neighborhood.? The girls wanted a name for their team.? They liked Mary’s team name idea.? They called themselves “The Trailblazers.”? And they were certainly blazing new trails in sports and in ending racism in Bedford Stuyvesant.? Ada B. Jackson must have been pleased to hear the news from Captain Keirnan when they met to go over the plans for developing his Police Athletic League.

The 79th Precinct Trailblazers had an immediate effect. Mary recalls that very shortly, other Police Athletic League girl’s track teams began to form across Brooklyn and Queens.? Police captains in other precincts were anxious to assemble a girl's team that could beat Captain Keirnan’s Trailblazers.? Patrolmen who had once been track stars in college were recruited to coach the girls.? Soon boys were asking to form track teams.? “Let them in, let the boys run.”? Said Mary when Captain Keirnan asked her about adding the boys.

Track and field was becoming a sport that was exploding in popularity.? Thousands came to watch the track meets held by rival Police Athletic Leagues.? Hundreds of kids practicing each afternoon on the track with police officers as coaches, rival neighborhoods trying to outrun each other on the track instead of fighting on the streets.? This was just the transformation Ada B. Jackson and Mayor LaGuardia were hoping for.? Part Three: Mary and Martha prepare for the 1948 Olympics