Racing Against the Odds: The Story of Wendell Scott, Stock Car Racing's African-American Champion

Wendell Scott was born in a hurry! At the age of 15 he bought a Model T and started to make it go faster. He accumulated a pile of speeding tickets! He quite school and went to work driving a cab to make money to send his sister to college. World War II took him far from home and when he returned, those speeding tickets kept him from driving a cab again. So, to make money he took up bootlegging moonshine and the lawmen just couldn't catch up to him. When a race car promoter came to town looking for a black race car driver to race against white drivers on is racetrack, the entire police force assured him Wendell was the right man for the job. So, Wendell became a stock car driver and was the first and only African American to win a "NASCAR" race. Unfortunately, when he crossed the finish line in the lead, the winning flag did not fly for him. It was 1963 in Florida and the track officials did not want to see a black man kissing the beauty queen and receiving the trophy. Dream Big! You never know what you can achieve! 40 pages Ages 7-10