Bessie Stringfield: Tales of the Talented Tenth

The second volume of Gill’s history series about little-known heroes of black history has its occasional hammy moments. But these are quibbles only; this quick-paced biography of Bessie Stringfield, the so-called “Motorcycle Queen of Miami,” is a pocketful of cheerful, hard-fought optimism. Abandoned by her father as a child and raised by nuns, Stringfield became obsessed with motorcycles at an early age. Bucking the odds against a black woman, she crisscrossed the country eight times in the pre-WWI years, just for the adventure. Stringfield, narrating the story from old age, describes everything as a gas, even outrunning the KKK. Later on, she turns to circus stunt work, billed as the “Negro Motorcycle Queen,” and joins the army during WWII as a courier. Some of Gill’s more imaginative flairs, like representing Jim Crow laws as actual crows, don’t quite work. But the whipcrack speed of the narrative and Stringfield’s no-nonsense bravery are still a bracing tonic. (Oct.) ★