Rajo Jack

Noah Gatson had steady work with a railroad, which kept his family in a better financial state than other African-Americans in Texas.

[1] Dewey Gatson was hired by the Doc Marcell Medicine Show as a roustabout general laborer at 16 years old.

[1] He began racing with moderate success in the early 1920s at the fairs that the Marcell family followed across the country.

[3] While he raced mainly on the West Coast, he traveled as far east as Dayton, Ohio for a fair that year.

On his drive back west, he stopped to race at the Steele County fair in Owatonna, Minnesota.

He was badly injured along with Bayliss Levrett in an accident that claimed the life of Wayne "Boots" Pearson.

He was barely able to bend his arm as the result of numerous racing injuries, and he had difficulty reaching the steering wheel.

[3] His last race apparently came when Northern California sprint cars made a visit to Honolulu Stadium in Hawaii in early 1954.

In 1934 Rajo Jack won a 200-mile (320 km) stock car race at Silvergate Speedway in San Diego.

[3] Jack won a 200 mile stock car race at Mines Field in Los Angeles on October 25, 1936.

[3] He was inducted in the West Coast Stock Car Hall of Fame as a member of the class of 2003.

Rajo sold auto parts, raced, and worked as a mechanic until he died on February 27, 1956.

He raced long before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to make room for a white passenger, and over a decade before Jackie Robinson first played in Major League Baseball.

[3] He was respected among his peers for his talent, so he was generally allowed access to racing circles in spite of his color.

[5] He once let the other driver win in a two lap match race because he knew that he couldn't kiss the white trophy girl.