"When an OG told me, ‘We just wanted to ride,’ I kept thinking about that. The open road. Wind in your face. Pulling over ...

Bessie Stringfield was the first Black woman to ride a motorcycle solo across the United States. She made eight cross-country trips during the Jim Crow era, often facing racism and prejudice.

Most people think they know the story of American motorcycle culture with the leather jackets, the open roads, the big V‑twins rumbling under a wide sky. But the version most folks picture leaves out ...