Finding Indiana: The story of Charlie Wiggins, ‘The Negro Speed King’
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A fearless and determined man from Evansville drove his way into history as a race car driver during the early 1920s and ’30s, but his story is widely unknown.
Charlie Wiggins was born on July 15, 1897, to Sport and Jennie Wiggins. The family lived in a segregated part of the city called Bapisttown. The couple had four boys: Charlie, Lawrence, Walter, and Hershel.
Wiggins’ childhood ended abruptly when his mom died when he was 9 years old. Wiggins left school to help support his dad and siblings. He landed his first job shining shoes near downtown Evansville, and, by 1917, he was working as a chief mechanic at the Benninghoff-Nolan garage.
Wiggins developed a love for cars and racing early.
His niece, Rochelle Wiggins-Morton, describes his early dreams to become a race car driver: “Uncle Charlie always heard about the Indianapolis 500 and he was determined as a young kid that he was going to come up here [Indianapolis] and he was going to race in that race. But, as he got older, he found out that it might not be as easy to achieve as he thought it would be. ”
After the death of his father, Wiggins, his wife, Roberta, and his three brothers moved to Indianapolis for a fresh new start.
With his sights set on racing, Wiggins began work on a special project, his own homemade race car called the “Wiggins Special.” When he wasn’t building his car, he was working as a mechanic.
In 1920, Wiggins applied to enter the Indy 500 as a driver but was rejected. At the time, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway did not allow Black drivers or mechanics in the race.
Wiggins also faced the brutal reality of racism in more ways than one.
“The KKK people got wind of it because he wasn’t being quiet about this and [they] started doing little tricks and things to discourage him, but all they did was make him more determined than ever that he was going to race at the Motor Speedway,” Morton said.
Not to be defeated, Wiggins continued to work on his race car, hoping to one day put it on the track.
His chance to race would come nearly four years later, in 1924.
A group of businessmen created the Colored Speedway Association and held their own race, called the Gold and Glory Sweepstakes, at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. The race was specifically for Black people.
Wiggins entered the competition in 1925. A year later, he took home his first victory. And then, he went on a hot streak. Wiggins won the race in 1931, 1932, and 1933 and earned a new title: “The Negro Speed King.”
His wins garnered him a lot of attention from other drivers, including those at the Indy 500.
Wiggins’ success on the track landed him a job as a mechanic on Bill Cummings’ 1934 Indy 500 car, but Wiggins had to dress as a janitor to get into the track. Once inside, he worked on Cummings’ car in secrecy. Cummings won the race that year and later gave credit to Wiggins.
Wiggins returned to racing, but it wouldn’t be long before tragedy struck.
During a race in 1936, he was involved in a 13-car crash. Weather conditions earlier in the day worsened the track, making it hard to drive and see during the race.
“One of the cars stalled and the cars were coming and there was this huge, huge crash…Uncle Charlie crashed his car. He was in the car partially as it was burning and someone pulled him the rest of the way out of the car,” Wiggins’ niece, Angie Rogers, explained.
Wiggins survived but lost a leg and his right eye.
Loved by many in the city, people rallied in support of Wiggins. While he spent hours in surgery, hundreds of Black people donated blood to help with his recovery.
The crash ended Wiggins’ career as a driver. However, he was no stranger to bumps in the road. The “Speed King” went on to make his own prosthetic leg out of wood and continued to work as a mechanic for the remainder of his life.
Wiggins died in 1979 when he was 82 years old.
In 2002, author Todd Gould published a book, “For Gold and Glory,” about the racing champion. Now, Ed Welburn, the first Black vice president of global design at General Motors, is bringing Wiggins’ story to the big screen.
“For years, I kept saying someone needs to make a feature movie. I hired a team of veteran movie industry writers and producers and bought the rights to the story in Todd Gould’s book and hired him as an adviser. We’re in the midst of developing a feature film,” Welburn said.
Today, Wiggins is honored with a historical Mural at West 29th and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. streets in Indianapolis, and Evansville Mayor Lloyd Winnecke proclaimed June 23 as Charlie Wiggins Day.
Now and forever, he is Indiana’s “Negro Speed King.”