ESKESHIA ROBERSON
Keshia Roberson, an endurance runner, coach, cyclist, and founder of Major Knox Adventures (MKA), uses fitness to drive social change, supporting causes like women’s empowerment, reproductive rights, and cancer patient support. MKA empowers people of color to experience affordable, culturally rich outdoor adventures that foster belonging, resilience, and historical connection.
The 1928 Legacy Tour is one of MKA’s transformative journeys, inspired by the 1928 cycling challenge of five Black women from Harlem to Washington, DC. It honors their legacy by celebrating Black women's athleticism, sisterhood, and love for outdoor adventure. The tour aims to amplify this legacy, promote freedom in nature, and heal from historical and present-day trauma in outdoor spaces. Much like Marylou Jackson, Velma Jackson, Ethyl Miller, Leolya Nelson, and Constance White, she’s planting seeds for the future generations of riders.
They Were Seeds: A Love Letter to Black Women on Bikes
To my sisters who pedal toward freedom, pushing against the wind and claiming space on streets that weren’t built with us in mind—this is for you.
These times weigh heavily on us, sitting deep in our bones and making it hard to breathe and believe in the world we dream of.
“I want to feel peace. I want to feel joy, balance, strength, and grace. I want to have the audacity to try. I want to feel connection. I want to feel free.” - Keshia Roberson, Journal Entry
Bikes have been my way of discovering these feelings. The rhythm of the pedals, the wind against my skin, and the way my body moves in sync with the bike—it's healing. It’s ours.
I still remember stumbling upon a post by Dr. Marya McQuirter about five Black women in 1928 who rode 250 miles from Harlem to Washington, D.C., in three days. They didn’t ride for a medal, attention, or approval. They rode for the love of the great outdoors. They rode because they could and because, despite every barrier, they wanted to. Then they had the audacity to challenge other women to do it faster.
They were seeds.
Seeds planted by the Pride of Oakland and the San Jose Wonder, two Black women racers in 1895 who set out to break records in a world that told them they had no place in cycling. Seeds carried forward by Kittie Knox, who rode with undeniable joy, rejecting the rigid rules of race and gender, refusing to shrink herself. She showed up where she wasn't “supposed” to be, wearing clothes women “weren't supposed” to wear, riding with confidence that was as disruptive as it was beautiful.
The spirit of Black women in cycling never disappeared; its roots only deepened. Today, I am one of many pushing those roots further.
Major Knox Adventures: Carrying the Legacy Forward
In 2018, while struggling with depression, I told my therapist that I felt starved for connection—not the physical kind, but emotional and spiritual. She looked at me and said, "So why don't you create it?" That moment planted a seed.
I founded Major Knox Adventures to reconnect Black people to cycling and the outdoors through storytelling, not only as a reflection of history but as a force shaping its future. The 1928 Legacy Tour is more than just a ride: it’s an invitation for women of color to step into a story of power, belonging, and possibility. The Trailblazers Program nurtures the next generation of leaders, ensuring that access, mentorship, and opportunity are not just words but actions.
We are not waiting to be included; we are creating the spaces we deserve.
Their Seeds Are Blossoming
Our presence has been sustained by the community. Artemis Racing, founded in 1999, helped carve a path for women in competitive cycling. Ayesha McGowan continues to push boundaries, showing us what it means to create space unapologetically and hold it with vulnerability and love.
Then there are spaces that celebrate our joy. Black Girl Bike Joy in Philadelphia expands our understanding of what it means to be a Black woman on a bike. It’s about a leisurely ride on a sunny afternoon, exploring the city with friends—the pure, unmatched freedom of coasting, arms wide, face lifted to the sky—just like they did on South Broad Street in 1892.
We are riding on the paths paved by those before us, while paving new ones.
The future of cycling is about transformation, and that transformation benefits all of us. Keep riding. Keep claiming your space. Keep blooming. Your presence is a gift to the world.
They Were Seeds. And We Are Still Blooming.
As Audre Lorde reminds us, "Without community, there is no liberation." Those who came before us didn’t ride small, and neither will we.
We were never meant to be buried. We were always meant to bloom.