John Baxter Taylor Jr. was the first black to get Olympics Medal in Athletics. He was born on November 3, 1882, at Washington D.C. John Baxter represented United States (U.S.) in Men’s Medley Relay and won Gold medal in 1908 London Olympics.
He ran the third leg, performing the 400 meters. John Baxter followed William Hamilton and Nate Cartmell, from the University of Pennsylvania and Mel Shephard from Brown Preparatory School. His split for the final was 49.8 sec. for this New York Times called him “The World’s Greatest Negro Runner”.
After returning from the Olympics Games, London in less than 5 months, he died of Typhoid fever on October 2, 1908, at the age of 26.