While hunting for old photographs at the Torrance Street Fair I came across this snapshot. The name emblazoned across the subject's chest vaguely rung a bell. I'd heard it somewhere before. As is often the case these days, as soon as I got home I did a Google search and turned up the very interesting information that Rajo Jack was in fact one of the very first African/American race car drivers!
Dewey Gatson was his real name and he was born in Tyler, Texas in 1903. By the time he was sixteen Dewey was on the west coast and working as a laborer for the Doc Marcell Medicine Show. He early on showed an aptitude for mechanics and was soon in charge of maintaining the shows fleet of vehicles. By the early 1920s Dewey had taken up automobile racing, a very popular sport in a nation that was still adjusting to, and much intrigued by, the horseless carriage.
Racial prejudice was very prevalent at the time, even in sports. Jackie Robinson's historic entry into major league baseball was still 25 years away. Young Mr. Gatson was likely the only black man attempting to drive at most races he attended. But he wanted badly to compete and resorted to the ploy of using the name Jack DeSoto and claiming to be Portuguese. At other times he is said to have identified himself as American Indian and avoided being photographed. Eventually he was generally, if not universally, accepted and apparently quite well liked. He went on to win a number of important races on the west coast and was at the apex of his career when this snapshot was taken on March 8, 1937. By this time he had obviously gotten over his reluctance to be photographed.
Dewey was often the mechanic as well as the driver of his machine. The Ford model T engine was a popular choice for budget minded racers of the era but it needed considerable modification to make it competitive with purpose built racing engines like the Miller. A number of companies offered equipment to enhance the model T's performance, among them a firm known as RAJO. Dewey came to use RAJO speed equipment and eventually was a distributor for the product. At some point he dropped the DeSoto moniker and added RAJO, thus becoming Rajo Jack.
Rajo Jack's perseverance is exemplified in a memorable story. The day before a 100 mile race in Oakland he was faced with the unhappy fact that his race engine was in pieces. Not to be deterred, he loaded the car on a truck, along with the dissembled motor. He then loaded a few tools and summoned his wife to drive the 400 miles north from their home in the Los Angeles area. As they traveled he proceeded to assemble the car's motor, finishing the task shortly before their arrival. Jack then qualified third and went on to finish second in the race.
At the time the AAA was the sanctioning body for major league auto racing in the United States.
Possibly because of racial prejudice, Jack was never a member and his activities were confined to the so-called "outlaw" circuits of the west coast with occasional forays into the mid-west. As a result he never competed in racing's premier event, the Indianapolis 500.
Auto racing ceased during the war but when it resumed after the hostilities Rajo Jack was again a part of it. But old racing injuries and the loss of an eye while performing stunts on a motorcycle made his participation difficult and he soon retired. Jack died of heart failure on Feb. 27, 1956 and is buried at Roosevelt Memorial Cemetery in Carson, California. The name on his death certificate was reportedly listed as "Rajo Jack".
Today, despite a strong effort by racing's sanctioning bodies to promote minority participation, few black drivers have emerged and fewer still have been as successful as Rajo Jack. Taking into account the considerable obstacles he faced and how he dealt with them there's little doubt that Rajo Jack (and, I would have to say, NASCAR's Wendell Scott from the 1960s) still rank as the greatest black drivers of all time. That may change someday but for now it's simply the truth.
Someday a movie will be made about Rajo Jack!
And this is a studio portrait of the man himself, Dewey Gatson --AKA "Rajo Jack". Might I suggest Snoop to portray him in the movie version of his legendary life?
