Taylor's legacy remained largely unknown until 1982, when the Major Taylor Velodrome in Indianapolis opened for the City's hosting of the U.S. Olympic Festival. Annual events taking place in the velodrome or the wider Indy Cycloplex named in honor of Taylor include the Major Taylor Racing League track series, and from 2015, the Major Taylor Cross Cup second division UCI cyclo-cross event. Taylor was posthumously inducted into the U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame in 1989. In 1996 and 1997, Taylor was posthumously awarded with the USA Cycling Korbel Lifetime Achievement Award and the Massachusetts Hall of Black Achievement, respectively. In 2002, he was one of the nine track cyclists inducted into the UCI Hall of Fame, created to commemorate 100 years of the Paris–Roubaix one-day road race and the inauguration of the World Cycling Centre. In 2003, he was named a Sports Ethics Fellow by the Institute for International Sport. During the 2005 UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Los Angeles, a Peugeot bicycle that Taylor had owned, and then was donated to the U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame, was put on display inside the ADT Event Center. In 2009, a state historical marker was installed as a tribute to Taylor near the Indiana State Fairgrounds in Indianapolis, where the Capital City track once stood, and where he had set an unofficial track record in 1896. In 2018, he was honored with a special tribute award at the International Athletic Association's Jesse Owens Awards held at the National Museum of African American History and Culture.