FEMALE JOCKEY" is an Impasto portrait of an African American Cheryl White, the nation’s first black female horse jockey. Australian tonalism...

Cheryl White is the nation’s first black female horse jockey. White was born on October 29, 1953, in Cleveland, Ohio. Her father, Raymond White, was an African American horse trainer, and her mother, Doris, was a Polish American racehorse owner. The family owned 80 acres of land in Rome, Ohio, and several thoroughbred horses. White began riding when she was four years old, when she told her father she wanted to become a jockey. She was the first female to apply for a jockey license at Thistledown Racetrack in Cleveland, where she regularly trained with her parents. She attended Grand Valley High School in nearby Orwell, Ohio, and graduated in 1971 soon after being awarded an academic scholarship to Bowling Green State University.