Rapid Ray Lewis was arguably the fastest man of his generation. He won medals in the 1932 Olympics and the 1934 British Empire Games, and countless races in North America. Remarkable achievements for any man – but all the more remarkable because Lewis had to race poverty and prejudice. The geat-grandson of slaves, he worked as a porter on the railway, and trained by running alongside the tracks when the train was stopped on the prairies.

Rapid Ray is far more than a sports autobiography; it is as much a history of one man’s battle for equality as it is a history of Olympic-level track. Throughout his long life – he is now in his nineties – Ray Lewis has fought discrimination not only in sports, but in every walk of life.