Black motorcycle clubs come alive in the summer: ‘The best way to build community is on two wheels’

Building on decades-long traditions, Black bikers host rides, picnics and other gatherings nearly every summer weekend to celebrate community and freedom The trip was only supposed to be a Memorial Day weekend girls’ getaway to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, for Patrice “Foxy” Johnson. But once Johnson and her crew arrived, they inadvertently found themselves in the middle of an annual bike week where several thousand riders had convened. Johnson watched the “backpacks”, or the women who rode ...

By Morgan Jerkins with photographs by Elijah Chukwuka Mogoli