Leon Nichols

Edited Press Release As One Racing Stables has launched its first diverse and inclusive racing partnership. The group will race under the As One Racing banner and has acquired its first equine athlete to promote the group's mission and vision. As One Racing was formed by a group of six like-minded individuals with a desire to grow the sport by broadening its base and bringing new faces to the industry. Turning to history, the group recognized the need for the African American community that had once been a vital part...

Leon Nichols, Calvin Davis and affiliates of the Project to Preserve African-American Turf History are seeking additional backing to bring the story of the 1890 Isaac Murphy-Snapper Garrison match race aboard Salvator and Tenny at Sheepshead Bay Park. The event, held after Murphy and Salvator defeated Garrison and Tenny in the Suburban earlier in the year, was billed by press at the time as a race between "Black and white." PPAATH was the subject of a Katie Ritz feature in the TDN in 2020. The nonprofit's founder and co-founder, Nichols...

Last summer, the TDN was first introduced to the Project to Preserve African American Turf History (PPAATH), a Louisville-based group that promotes the education of African American contributions to racing throughout history. In 'The First Steps Towards Inclusiveness in Racing,' we spoke with CEO and Founder Leon Nichols on the inception of their organization and how they hope to change the sport of racing for the better. A few months after our meeting, the group was featured on NBC's coverage of the 146th Running of the Kentucky Derby in a...

On a sparsely traveled road in downtown Lexington, African Cemetery No. 2 sits encircled by a worn iron fence. The sounds of cars flashing by nearby busier streets, the incessant barking of a neighboring dog and the harsh droning of a drill from the adjacent auto parts shop carry through the isolated eight-acre plot. Opened in 1869, the site now contains over 5,000 graves, of which fewer than 600 are recognized with markers. The plot inters hundreds of enslaved African Americans, as well as members of the U.S. Colored Troops...