The Black West: A Documentary and Pictorial History of the African American Role in the Westward Expansion of the United States

by William Loren Katz

This entirely new edition of a famous classic has glorious new photographs—many never before seen—as well as a revised and expanded text that deepens our understanding of the vital role played by African American men and women on our early frontiers.Inspired by a conversation that William Loren Katz had with Langston Hughes, The Black West presents long-neglected stories of daring pioneers such as Nat Love, a.k.a. Deadwood Dick, Mary Fields, a.k.a. Stagecoach Mary, Cranford Goldsby, a.k.a. Cherokee Bill—and a host of other intrepid men and women who marched into the wilderness alongside Chief Osceola, Billy the Kid, and Geronimo.Featuring captivating narratives and photographs (many from the author’s world-famous collection), The Black West enriches and deepens our stirring frontier saga. From slave runaways during the colonial era, to the journeys of Lewis and Clark, to the charge at San Juan Hill, Katz vividly recounts the crucial contributions African Americans made during scores of frontier encounters. With its stirring pictures and vivid eyewitness accounts, The Black West is an exhilarating treasure trove.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Westerns, African American, Race, American History, The United States Of America

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1973

Reviews

[Howard · Rating 5 out of 5]

REREAD

“In 1942 Pulitzer-Prize historian James Truslow Adams, author and editor of more than two dozen volumes on American history, insisted that black men ‘were unfitted by nature from becoming founders of communities on the frontier’ …. To be sure, black men had ‘many excellent qualities’ … ‘even temper, affection, great loyalty … willingness to follow a leader or master,’ but these were ‘not the qualities which … made good … frontiersmen.'” – William Loren Katz, The Black West

“Ray Allen Billington’s gigantic and otherwise thorough Westward Expansion (1967) [is] considered to be the definitive history of the frontier. None of its 933 pages nor its careful 38-page index mentions a black who achieved anything or helped to develop the frontier.” – William Loren Katz, The Black West


William Katz has been quoted as saying that “the assertion that the Negro has no history worth mentioning is basic to the theory that he has no humanity worth defending.” In his lifelong interest in black history and his quest to document that history he laid to rest the proposition that black American men and women had not contributed anything of significance to the settling and development of the West. In so doing, he also proved that even award-winning and critically-acclaimed historians could be badly mistaken.

In his rebuttal of Adams and castigation of Billington’s lack of awareness of the role blacks played in the history of the West, William Katz writes in The Black West:

The story of the black people was ignored when historians told of Ponce de Leon, Chief Osceola, Davy Crockett, Billy the Kid, Bat Masterson, Sitting Bull, General Custer and Buffalo Bill. Yet, they are mentioned in explorers’ diaries, government reports, pioneers’ reminiscences and frontier newspapers. They appear in sketches by Charles Russell and Frederic Remington, and in early photographs by professional and amateur cameramen…. Like other Americans, they helped shape our many frontiers.

The Black West is an all-inclusive history of the Western experience of African-American men and women, beginning with the early explorers and ending with the Spanish-American War in 1898. Why the Spanish-American War? It was included because black cavalry troopers who had defended the U.S. frontier for three decades after the Civil War also fought in that conflict. In fact, without their support Teddy Roosevelt’s famous charge would have ended in failure. As to be expected, since it was the norm, Roosevelt received all the media publicity while the black troops were hardly mentioned.

Among the forty books that Katz wrote on black history are several aimed at YA readers. He thought that it was vitally important that the young, white as well as black, be familiar with the significant contributions made by black Americans in the settlement and development of the American West.

He wrote in 1971, when the book was originally published:

No phase of our history is more typically American, its heroes more greatly appreciated by young and old than the old West. Celebrated and glorified by movies, novels, TV and textbooks, it has been offered to all as the unique American experience. For black youngsters to truly feel a part of the United States and for white youngsters to see them as part of the nation, the black frontiersmen, settlers, cowboys and cavalrymen must ride across the pages of textbooks just as they rode across the western plains.

Katz had a degree in American history, but his master’s degree was in secondary education, because he wanted to teach American history to high school students and make it more interesting than it had been for him when he was in high school. He spent fourteen years in high school classrooms and his study of black history and its inclusion into his course curriculum serve as an example of his efforts to make the study of history more interesting and more meaningful.

A number of revised editions of The Black West, including additional photographs, have been published since 1971. The latest, published in 2019, has an added subtitle: A Documentary and Pictorial History of the African American Role in the Westward Expansion of the United States.

All the editions feature numerous photos, sketches, maps, and most important, primary documents.

William Loren Katz died in 2019. He was eighty-years old.
_______________
The Black West can be considered a companion volume to three other ground-breaking histories of the African-American Western experience:

The Negro Cowboys (1965) by Philip Durham and Everett L. Jones

The Buffalo Soldiers: A Narrative of the Black Cavalry in the West (1967) by William H. Leckie

Black Indians: A Hidden Heritage (1986) by William Loren Katz

[Tom Ferington]

Living in the southwest for most of my young life has been great but I've always wondered "Who settled this wild place?" Throughout school we think of the Old West as a bunch of white guys stealing cattle, drinking at saloons and fighting with the Native Americans. As you read Katz's The Black West you are shown African Americans have had a role in the West since the 1500's and have done many things to help settle the west ranging from trappers, homesteaders, explores to sheriffs. Being a young African American I am usually not taught all this amazing history there is about African Americans in the West.. not until I read William Loren Katz's The Black West however. This book is not just for a African Americans or history buffs however, this book is for anyone who wants to learn an almost hidden part of history.

[Danielle The Book Huntress · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent reference book and very readable text on Black Americans in the West. I learned so much in the reading of this. I haven't read it from cover to cover, but even by utilizing the index to look at certain topics, I was very happy with the information contained in this book. I am grateful that Mr. Katz took the time to write this book for us African American history buff who want to learn more about the contributions that our ancestors made in the United States.

[Theshiney · Rating 3 out of 5]

enjoyable on many levels, not to mention ground breaking because of the distinct history that this book presents which is blatantly missing from history text and more popular media. tho, what starts off with a bang loses vision about 2/3 through, in a formally convoluted collection of anecdotes, pictures, and historical episodes that become more generalized (chapter on women esp.) or scant and even occasionally repeat. but there is so much to glean it will not deter any reader.

i especially appreciated the oft-missing message of Lincoln's contemporary Republicans who supported the end of slavery because of the lack of employment for the white worker. thus allowing the doors opened by reconstruction to swing back quickly and with even greater tenacity as whites 'protected' their interests. what was once economic subjugation turned into an unmitigated social virus as it became common to pass law after law to stave blacks rights, esp. in the more urban areas, even if the black population in said area was negligible.
thank you mr. katz, this explains a gap ive always had in my understanding of american history.

[Roxanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is very good book. When you read the history books about the West they left Black persons out which is way wrong. Then they started making movies about the West and putting white actors to play someone who in real life was black. I had no idea how black men and women made such important contributions to to the West.

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Absolutely delivers as a "documentary" and "pictorial" history. Comprehensively covers what had historically been ignored or whitewashed, through a series of wide-ranging and excellently illustrated vignettes (though not so much a continuous narrative).

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

For me a real eye opener into the role that Africans had played in the establishment of the North American West. This is a well written book about a history which has been too often neglected.

[Laurence Hidalgo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This eye-opening book is filled with accounts, both historical and anecdotal, of the mistreatment, brutality, subjugation, and profound unfairness Blacks endured in the American west. The hypocrisy of the American legal system, governmental agencies, and individuals, including presidents, is appalling and infuriating. The most amazing thing about these stories is the resiliency of these people and how they pressed on despite the institutional racism that pervaded their lives. Although it contains many disturbing passages, this book is curiously uplifting at the same time. I'm glad I read it.

[Emily Harper · Rating 4 out of 5]

This history is super interesting, but this book reads like a museum placard. I loved chapter 7, it was what I hoped the whole book would be - cowhand history and the wild west. It was 1 of ~2 chapters that emphasized the successes rather than the suffering black communities faced in their movements west. You could easily read just that chapter (they are not really narratively linked). The rest was informative but not really engaging, a lot of names and dates; though the photos throughout the book are special, (old-timey portraits outside of slavery) something that is definitely missing from history textbooks.

[David Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Monumental work with only one issue

I've been aware of The Black West since I was a boy, seeing ads for it in Ebony and Jet magazines, back in the 70s. Reading it was worth the wait. I met heroes and champions of my people, that obviously, I never had to learn about in school. Sadly, on that score, not much has changed about the way that American history is still taught. My only problem with the book is.......how can one write a book about the Black West, and overlook the greatest lawman from that era, of any ethnic group... U.S. Marshal Bass Reeves?

[Jean Dory · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great nonfiction book documented throughout with photographs and interesting images of historical papers. I grew up near Boston in a family that did not allow prejudice of any kind. How is it that I never learned any of this information about Black history??? Why was it never taught, even in New England? I was glad (and angry) to finally get to learn the contributions of many Blacks to our history.

[Kenneth jung · Rating 5 out of 5]

a great book on a period of African American history

This book is great especially if you are a student of the period of American history known as the old west. This book helps fill those apps.

[Brenda Gill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing read!

This book is so filled with information that is not taught in schools. It’s all inclusive. Everyone should read this account of American history.

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Katz did bring forward numerous examples of an oft ignored area of history. His focus of study begins with the initial European exploration of our continent, and carries his view until about 1910. He does bring forward examples of a continuous black presence in the American West. His style of writing however, makes their presence 'episodic,' and lacks a cohesion into a larger whole. This isolated treatment weakens his argument. This aside however, I found his treatment of black settlement/expectations in Oklahoma and Black Pioneer Women very interesting. It is a good book for the illumination of examples and some very interesting stories, however a lackadaisical approach to insuring historic accuracy weakens his argument. All in all however, a good read!

[Patricia Toles]

Being a historical fiction writer, I found the book very informitive, and educational. I didn't realize the extent to which the African Americans played an extinsive role in the expansion of the west.

[Karen]

* Understanding Oppression: African American Rights (Then and Now)

With glorious photos and expanded text, this historical narrative honors the vital African Americans who helped forge the nation's frontiers. 100+ photos throughout. #blackcowboys #blackindians