The Profound History of Black Cowboys in America
(photo credit: Texas Public Radio)
Despite a mass erasure in film and a history of segregation, Black cowboys were not only participants in ranching history but game-changers for the industry as a whole.
By Sasha Ashton
Growing up in Texas exposed me to cowboy culture from a young age. I remember the joy, as a child, of seeing people ride horses down city streets. I went to the rodeo now and again and even had a few pairs of cowboy boots—and never questioned why I didn’t ever see cowboys who looked like me. Early on, I adjusted to consuming media that didn’t represent me. Like many others, I just assumed there weren’t any Black cowboys because that profession was kept from us by segregation or something.
When I moved to Philadelphia, it wasn’t long before I saw horses in the street again. However, when I learned about Philadelphia’s history of Black cowboys, I began investigating what I thought I knew so well and discovered an entire history that had been kept from me.
Black Cowboys Before and After Slavery
Not only did Black cowboys exist, but as many as one in four cowboys were Black. The word “cowboy” derives from a pejorative term to distinguish Black “cow boys” from white “cow hands” at the pre-industrial peak of career cattle rearing. “Bulldogging” is when a cowboy would ride alongside a steer, jump onto the steer's back and wrestle it to the ground. The father of this famous rodeo event was a Black cowboy named Bill Pickett. So, not only was there an abundance of Black cowboys, but they were an essential piece of cowboy history….
Sasha Ashton is a writer from Austin, Texas living and working in Philadelphia, PA. For more from Sasha, you can find her on Instagram @ashasashton or on Twitter @slashatrashton.
