“That was a nice paper, but there was no such thing as Black Cowboys,”

. . .the uninformed and most likely miseducated teacher told elementary school-age, Sharon Terry.  She and her father Emerson were reading "The Adventures of the Negro Cowboys," by Philip Durham and Everett L. Jones and she used the book to write a report for school. The book included a few photos and illustrations, but the number of individuals whose images were featured with the stories were far less than the stories of cowboys and westerns that included visual representation. It was the early 1970’s there was no Internet in the mainstream USA.  "The Adventures of the Negro Cowboys," was one of only a few publications on the subject, and almost no images to represent the Black Folks in the Old West.  Unlike Emerson’s childhood, there weren’t even “race movies” featuring black folks in the old West. 

Sharon’s father Emerson had already documented moments in the Civil Rights Movement with paintings.  He was now determined to visually represent and document the stories of Americans of African origin whose existence was dismissed and then abolished from the story of the United States.  At the same time, Terry found a way to tell the story of the unrepresented with paint and brushes he kept knocking and kicking at the closed doors in the advertising business.

As Terry painted a more inclusive “Old West,” he continued to research, read, and found that on the continent of Africa cattle culture was the center of many ethnic groups and societies.  The relationship ran so deep that slavers targeted specific peoples for their bovine knowledge and skills.  To link the continents of Africa, the people, and their wealth-building ability, Terry expanded the identity of his project from the abstract name of “Black Cowboys” to the concert name of “African Cowboys.” 

The following are two “African Cowboys” and some of the information that Terry found about them.   Nate Love aka Deadwood Dick,  and Bill Pickett.

Nat Love,

. . . better known as "Deadwood Dick was born a slave in Tennessee, when he got his freedom from chattel slavery he went to Texas Panhandle and hired out his services to a ranch on the Palo Duro River. Nate learned to speak Spanish in Arizona. In 1876, Nat's outfit made a cattle drive to the Dakota Territory where he won the title for rope throwing tying bridles saddling mustangs and the name "Deadwood Dick".

Bill Pickett

When cowboys began to put on shows and eventually rodeos in towns in Texas, Colorado, and Wyoming, bulldogging became popular. In the rodeos, the man who was thought to be just about the best bulldogger in the country was an African Cowboy by the name of Bill Pickett. According to Pickett’s boss, Zack Miller, “Bill Pickett was the greatest sweat-and dirt cowhand that ever lived- bar none. ”From the earliest days of trail driving, it was sometimes necessary to rope steers which broke away from the herd. Roping a running steer was not easy.  The cowboy often threw many misses, and the steer could be a long way from the herd before it was brought down. At times a cowboy forgot his rope and then he tried to bring down a steer by hand.  That was bulldogging.  Today the Bill Pickett Rodeo travels the country keeping alive the memory of those early African Cowboys. 

THOUGHTS: If we think of the AfricanCowboy in isolation as a product of slavery with no past, no history and neglect to look back to a time on the continent of Africa when Black

Men and Women created the first civilization and built empires. then we would see

the young AfricanCowboys and Women of the Old West were just continuing the

traditions of their ancestors back on the continent, where they were some of the

best horsemen and cattle breeders bar non.

For more information on other Black Cowboys

. . . check out

The Adventures of the Negro Cowboys, By Philip Durham and Everett L. Jones

The Black West, By William Loren Katz

Fun Facts about Cowboy Nat Love | Black History for Student https://youtu.be/Q5iTRpyvQK8

The Life and Adventures of Nat Love Better Known in the Cattle Country as "Deadwood Dick" by Himself; a True History of Slavery Days, Life on the Great Cattle Ranges and on the Plains of the "Wild and Woolly" West, Based on Facts, and Personal Experiences of the Author: Electronic Edition.  Love, Nat, 1854 - 1921 https://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/natlove/natlove.html