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Black Cowboys of Rodeo: Unsung Heroes from Harlem to Hollywood and the American West
They ride horses, rope calves, buck broncos, ride and fight bulls, and even wrestle steers. They are Black cowboys, and the legacies of their pursuits intersect with those of America’s struggle for racial equality, human rights, and social justice.
Keith Ryan Cartwright brings to life the stories of such pioneers as Cleo Hearn, the first Black cowboy to professionally rope in the Rodeo Cowboy Association; Myrtis Dightman, who became known as the Jackie Robinson of Rodeo after being the first Black cowboy to qualify for the National Finals Rodeo; and Tex Williams, the first Black cowboy to become a state high school rodeo champion in Texas.
Black Cowboys of Rodeo is a collection of one hundred years of stories, told by these revolutionary Black pioneers themselves and set against the backdrop of Reconstruction, Jim Crow, segregation, the civil rights movement, and eventually the integration of a racially divided country.
Keith Ryan Cartwright brings to life the stories of such pioneers as Cleo Hearn, the first Black cowboy to professionally rope in the Rodeo Cowboy Association; Myrtis Dightman, who became known as the Jackie Robinson of Rodeo after being the first Black cowboy to qualify for the National Finals Rodeo; and Tex Williams, the first Black cowboy to become a state high school rodeo champion in Texas.
Black Cowboys of Rodeo is a collection of one hundred years of stories, told by these revolutionary Black pioneers themselves and set against the backdrop of Reconstruction, Jim Crow, segregation, the civil rights movement, and eventually the integration of a racially divided country.
- GenresNonfictionRaceHistory
384 pages, Hardcover
Published November 1, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
December 12, 2021
First, yes, there were and are MANY black cowboys. Who knew the most about working with horses and cattle before the Civil War? The people charged with that work every day. This book has innate value for getting that in popular conciousness and celebrating some of the people involved. It also showcases this long history and its intersection with wider history of the time.
I read this hoping to find some engaging pieces, or the whole book, for my rural students to engage with African-American migration to the West after the Civil War and its legacy. I was pleasantly surprised to learn about histories in New York and Los Angeles! That said, it was interesting the first time, but by the time it was mentioned the fifth time, I had completely lost engagement. Even small details were repeated over and over, such as James Caan stopping by El Fig stables when working on The Godfather. Then individuals featured earlier in the book were introduced later like they were brand new. It's very much like each bio was farmed out to individuals or they were separate blog posts thrown together with little to no editing. A good editor could have saved this from itself, organizing the bios in a more intuitive way and taking a red pen to all that repetition. Without that, it was very much a slog. I'll be finding more engaging material for my students. And here's hoping that it's a catalyst for others who don't know this history to learn more about it!
Thank you to Keith Ryan Cartwright, University of Nebraska Press, and Netgalley for an advanced ecopy in exchange for an honest review.
I read this hoping to find some engaging pieces, or the whole book, for my rural students to engage with African-American migration to the West after the Civil War and its legacy. I was pleasantly surprised to learn about histories in New York and Los Angeles! That said, it was interesting the first time, but by the time it was mentioned the fifth time, I had completely lost engagement. Even small details were repeated over and over, such as James Caan stopping by El Fig stables when working on The Godfather. Then individuals featured earlier in the book were introduced later like they were brand new. It's very much like each bio was farmed out to individuals or they were separate blog posts thrown together with little to no editing. A good editor could have saved this from itself, organizing the bios in a more intuitive way and taking a red pen to all that repetition. Without that, it was very much a slog. I'll be finding more engaging material for my students. And here's hoping that it's a catalyst for others who don't know this history to learn more about it!
Thank you to Keith Ryan Cartwright, University of Nebraska Press, and Netgalley for an advanced ecopy in exchange for an honest review.
December 19, 2021
You may have seen Lil Nas X highlighting Black cowboy culture in his Old Town Road music video, but Black cowboys have been largely ignored in media representation and history books. Actor Danny L. Glover does a great job of summing up the importance of this book in his introduction:
This book is primarily about Black cowboys who competed for belts, big bucks and respect in rodeos. The author, Keith Ryan Cartwright, has written another book about rodeo and his expertise is evident, to the point where this book could be challenging for a reader with no rodeo knowledge. I learned a lot through context cues, but I would have appreciated more hand-holding.
I commend Cartwright for investing what appears to have been A LOT of time interviewing these cowboys for firsthand accounts of rodeo history. And where that wasn't possible, he interviewed loved ones and close contacts. There was also a bit of difficulty pinning down details that comes from interviewing people about events that happened decades ago. I can only imagine this was a tough book to pull together and edit down.
While I appreciate that the book is organized into sections dedicated to individual Black cowboys and their stories, the format lent itself to repetition due to the overlapping nature of people's lives and work. And because of the restricted format, some people's stories started to read like a laundry list of names in a family story featuring a bunch of relatives you just can't keep track of. Clearly, each of these people could have entire books written about them. I'm sure this book will prove to be an important reference for anyone looking to learn more about any of these individuals, and I hope it inspires more people to shine a light on Black cowboys, past, present and future.
For those willing to dig into this compendium, there are real treasures. The pictures alone, are worth buying this book for. So many of the rodeo fashions would have been right at home on the red carpet of the 2021 Met Gala.
As much as these stories center around rodeo competition, being a cowboy is a way of life. One of my favorite stories is about Bailey's Prarie Kid (aka Taylor Hall Jr.), whose father "packed his firstborn son in the saddle with him, tucked a warm milk bottle in his chaps, and rode out into the pasture."
I voluntarily obtained a digital advanced reader copy of this book free from Netgalley and University of Nebraska Press in exchange for an honest review.
At its core, Black Cowboys of Rodeo seeks to capture the stories of Black cowboys as they endured and resisted racism, violence, and discrimination as the United States grappled with its congenital contradictions about race throughout the twentieth century.
This book is primarily about Black cowboys who competed for belts, big bucks and respect in rodeos. The author, Keith Ryan Cartwright, has written another book about rodeo and his expertise is evident, to the point where this book could be challenging for a reader with no rodeo knowledge. I learned a lot through context cues, but I would have appreciated more hand-holding.
I commend Cartwright for investing what appears to have been A LOT of time interviewing these cowboys for firsthand accounts of rodeo history. And where that wasn't possible, he interviewed loved ones and close contacts. There was also a bit of difficulty pinning down details that comes from interviewing people about events that happened decades ago. I can only imagine this was a tough book to pull together and edit down.
While I appreciate that the book is organized into sections dedicated to individual Black cowboys and their stories, the format lent itself to repetition due to the overlapping nature of people's lives and work. And because of the restricted format, some people's stories started to read like a laundry list of names in a family story featuring a bunch of relatives you just can't keep track of. Clearly, each of these people could have entire books written about them. I'm sure this book will prove to be an important reference for anyone looking to learn more about any of these individuals, and I hope it inspires more people to shine a light on Black cowboys, past, present and future.
For those willing to dig into this compendium, there are real treasures. The pictures alone, are worth buying this book for. So many of the rodeo fashions would have been right at home on the red carpet of the 2021 Met Gala.
As much as these stories center around rodeo competition, being a cowboy is a way of life. One of my favorite stories is about Bailey's Prarie Kid (aka Taylor Hall Jr.), whose father "packed his firstborn son in the saddle with him, tucked a warm milk bottle in his chaps, and rode out into the pasture."
With his son's little legs sticking out to either side, he would push him in tight under the front of the saddle horn, so Taylor Jr. was facing the back of the horse. If he started to lean too far backward, the horse's neck was there to hold him upright. His daddy's ol' horse took care of him from the time he was a baby until he was able to handle a horse of his own, as young as four or five.
I voluntarily obtained a digital advanced reader copy of this book free from Netgalley and University of Nebraska Press in exchange for an honest review.
March 17, 2026
2.5 stars, rounded down. I feel bad giving this one a medium-ish rating because I think the subject matter deserves a higher score, but honestly . . . this was a super mixed bag for me.
The good: Interesting subject that not much (if anything?) has been written about. Cartwright’s writing style is not dry and feels easy and casual. Most of the chapters are drawn from direct interviews and/or primary sources, so it’s great to hear from many of the cowboys themselves. It also covers a wide time range, as well as a wide variety of cowboys, from stunt men to professional competitors. Plus, you don’t really have to know anything about rodeo to enjoy the stories.
The bad: First, this wasn’t exactly what I thought it would be. I was expecting a history of Black working cowboys and maybe how that relates to rodeo; more socio-political history than biography. But each short chapter is a bio of a Black cowboy with some connection, however loosely, to Black rodeo.
The most egregious problem though is that this reads like a series of previously-published bios written over the years for a sports magazine, then quickly compiled to meet a publishing deadline. Every chapter is formulaic: an exciting story to hook the reader, followed by the birth details and early life of the cowboy, their rodeo career, and ending with where the subject is now and/or their own thoughts on their work. With over 20 chapters, it gets old. It also feels more like a compilation of existing pieces because many details are repeated and overlap, causing it to be a bit disorganized. I was very surprised to learn my assumption was wrong and all writing was specifically created for this book.
I would recommend this as a reference or supplemental source of information, but not as a straight read-through as I did.
The good: Interesting subject that not much (if anything?) has been written about. Cartwright’s writing style is not dry and feels easy and casual. Most of the chapters are drawn from direct interviews and/or primary sources, so it’s great to hear from many of the cowboys themselves. It also covers a wide time range, as well as a wide variety of cowboys, from stunt men to professional competitors. Plus, you don’t really have to know anything about rodeo to enjoy the stories.
The bad: First, this wasn’t exactly what I thought it would be. I was expecting a history of Black working cowboys and maybe how that relates to rodeo; more socio-political history than biography. But each short chapter is a bio of a Black cowboy with some connection, however loosely, to Black rodeo.
The most egregious problem though is that this reads like a series of previously-published bios written over the years for a sports magazine, then quickly compiled to meet a publishing deadline. Every chapter is formulaic: an exciting story to hook the reader, followed by the birth details and early life of the cowboy, their rodeo career, and ending with where the subject is now and/or their own thoughts on their work. With over 20 chapters, it gets old. It also feels more like a compilation of existing pieces because many details are repeated and overlap, causing it to be a bit disorganized. I was very surprised to learn my assumption was wrong and all writing was specifically created for this book.
I would recommend this as a reference or supplemental source of information, but not as a straight read-through as I did.
March 19, 2022
Borrowed this on a whim. It's unfortunate that my thoughts on what "cowboys" look like are usually white men when really they came in all colors. So I borrowed this on a whim--Black cowboys? Sounds cool.
The premise is pretty simple: the authors take the reader through profiles of various Black cowboys throughout history. They range all across the country (and not say, only Texas or the like), which of course was nice to see. Topics range from racism and social justice to "cowboy" things like cattle, riding horses and all of things you expect cowboys do.
Overall it felt rather dull. Maybe it had to do with the multiple authors (always an issue for me), but it was difficult when the text kept switching from person to person and as others have mentioned, details get repeated further into the text, like there was little coordination or there was an expectation that these would be read individual of each other.
Definitely a resource for learning about Black cowboys, especially if it helps break stereotypes and perceptions, but I do have to agree that it wasn't the best read and maybe could have been formatted differently.
Library borrow was best for me but could be great for a classroom library or a personal purchase for research.
The premise is pretty simple: the authors take the reader through profiles of various Black cowboys throughout history. They range all across the country (and not say, only Texas or the like), which of course was nice to see. Topics range from racism and social justice to "cowboy" things like cattle, riding horses and all of things you expect cowboys do.
Overall it felt rather dull. Maybe it had to do with the multiple authors (always an issue for me), but it was difficult when the text kept switching from person to person and as others have mentioned, details get repeated further into the text, like there was little coordination or there was an expectation that these would be read individual of each other.
Definitely a resource for learning about Black cowboys, especially if it helps break stereotypes and perceptions, but I do have to agree that it wasn't the best read and maybe could have been formatted differently.
Library borrow was best for me but could be great for a classroom library or a personal purchase for research.
December 22, 2021
Black Cowboys of Rodeo is a collection of one hundred years of stories, told by these revolutionary Black pioneers themselves and set against the backdrop of Reconstruction, Jim Crow, segregation, and the civil rights movement. The legacies of their pursuits intersect with those of America’s struggle for racial equality, human rights, and social justice. Keith Ryan Cartwright brings to life the stories of such pioneers as Cleo Hearn, the first Black cowboy to rope professionally in the Rodeo Cowboy Association; Myrtis Dightman, who became known as the Jackie Robinson of Rodeo after being the first Black cowboy to qualify for the National Finals Rodeo; and Tex Williams, the first Black cowboy to become a state high school rodeo champion in Texas.
I really enjoyed this book. I had not heard these stories before and appreciated the perspective. I also appreciated the timeline at the beginning of the book.
The proof I read had missing info and letters, which made it hard to read. A corrected proof is an asset for any library.
I really enjoyed this book. I had not heard these stories before and appreciated the perspective. I also appreciated the timeline at the beginning of the book.
The proof I read had missing info and letters, which made it hard to read. A corrected proof is an asset for any library.
June 7, 2024
3.8 stars. Lots of people in this book that deserve more recognition. Various famous actors I had no idea were cowboys. Definitely think I want to visit the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame now. Just a little too much of story after story, it was hard to retain all of it. Oh also, very fun to have Beyoncé do a country album and me be able to say “Yeah I know there were black cowboys. I can name a few.”
February 24, 2022
I loved this book so, so much! I love history, and I love rodeo/cowboy culture (especially the 101) and this was a wonderful blend of the two. It taught me a lot and gave me a few more things to add to my bucket list, specifically making a trip to see The Black Cowboy Museum in Rosenberg, TX.
I liked how the writing flowed from story to story, though it did get to be a bit much throughout the entire book with switching from one person to the next consistently; though that might just be me! I had a bit of trouble with the kindle version- it erased the letters F and I, and the chapters ran together. That was my only issue with the book, honestly. Other than that I really enjoyed it!
I liked how the writing flowed from story to story, though it did get to be a bit much throughout the entire book with switching from one person to the next consistently; though that might just be me! I had a bit of trouble with the kindle version- it erased the letters F and I, and the chapters ran together. That was my only issue with the book, honestly. Other than that I really enjoyed it!
January 15, 2022
A great introduction for me to the history of black cowboys in rodeo. The history was amazing and the stories of the cowboys were very interesting. So glad to see that the stories have been captured and are being shared so that we all understand the impact of each of the cowboys to the rich history of the West and the Rodeo.
My only issue was that it did get to be a bit much throughout the entire book with switching from one person to the next consistently; though that might just be me! I had a bit of trouble with the kindle version- it erased the letters F and I, and the chapters ran together.
Thank you Net Galley for a chance to read and review!
My only issue was that it did get to be a bit much throughout the entire book with switching from one person to the next consistently; though that might just be me! I had a bit of trouble with the kindle version- it erased the letters F and I, and the chapters ran together.
Thank you Net Galley for a chance to read and review!
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews