Black Cowboys You Should Know!!
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Bill Pickett
left school in the 5th grade to become a ranch hand; he soon began to ride horses and watch the longhorn steers of his native Texas.
He invented the technique of bulldogging, the skill of grabbing cattle by the horns and wrestling them to the ground. It was known among cattlemen that, with the help of a trained bulldog, a stray steer could be caught. Bill Pickett had seen this happen on many occasions. He also thought that if a bulldog could do this feat, so could he. Pickett's method for bulldogging was biting a cow on the lip and then falling backwards. He also helped cowboys with bulldogging. This method eventually lost popularity as the sport morphed into the steer wrestling that is practiced in rodeos.
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Deadwood Dick
was born in June, 1854 as a slave on Robert Love’s plantation in Davidson
County Tennessee, Nat (pronounced Nate) Love would grow up to be one of the most famous cowboys in the Old West.
In the spring of 1876, the Gallinger cowboys were sent to deliver a herd of three thousand steers
to Deadwood, South Dakota.
When the crew arrived on July 3rd, the locals were busy preparing for a 4th of July celebration. One of the many organized events included a “cowboy” contest with a $200 cash prize to the winner.
The contestants competed in roping bridling, saddling, and shooting. Winning every competition, hands down, Nat walked away with the $200 prize and the nickname of “Deadwood Dick.”
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The King of the Rodeo
Myrtis Dightman
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Myrtis Dightman was born on May 7, 1935, in Crockett, Texas. Dightman grew up on a ranch with his siblings. As he grew older, he left school to work on the ranch. His first introduction to the Prairie View Trailride was in 1957 and in 1958-1960, he worked as a bullfighter. It was not until 1960 that Dightman began bull riding for the first time with the help of James Francis, Jr. Francis and Dightman founded the Prairie View Trailride Assocation in 1957 with an emphasis on the well-being and development of agriculture.
In 1966,
Myrtis Dightman became the
first black cowboy to qualify for the Professional Rodeo Association National Finals. He went on to qualify six more times, missing just once between 1966 and 1972. Dightman finished third in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association World Standings in 1967 and 1968. He also won the Calgary Stampede in 1971 before appearing in the movie J.W. Coop with Cliff Robertson as himself. The following year, Dightman won the bull riding competition at the Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo and competed in his last Pro Rodeo Association National Finals, placing seventh overall. He also had a small role as himself in Junior Bonner starring Steve McQueen. In 1987, Dightman began working at the American Hat Company which manufactured and sold “Myrtis Dightman signature” hat designs.
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Mary Fields (c. 1832–1914), also known as
Stagecoach Mary, was the first African-American woman star route mail carrier in the United States. She was not an employee of the United States Post Office; the Post Office Department did not hire or employ mail carriers for star routes but rather awarded star route contracts to persons who proposed the lowest qualified bids, and who in accordance with the Department’s application process posted bonds and sureties to substantiate their ability to finance the route.
Fields obtained the star route contract for the delivery of U.S. mail from Cascade, Montana to Saint Peter's Mission in 1885. She drove the route with horse and wagon, not a stagecoach, for two four-year contracts: from 1885 to 1889 and from 1889 to 1893.
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Fred Whitfield
born on Aug. 5, 1967, in Houston. is an American calf roper who won eight Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) world championships and three NFR aggregate titles. Seven of those titles were World Tie-Down Roping Championships and one was the World All-Around Cowboy Championship. As of 2003, Whitfield became the third cowboy in history to surpass the $2 million mark in career earnings; and became only the second African-American cowboy in PRCA history to win a world title and the first to win an all-around title. His 10-head total of 84.0 seconds enroute to the aggregate title in 1997 established a Wrangler NFR record and is considered one of the greatest performances in the history of the Wrangler NFR. World Championships: 8 (TD, 1991, 1995-96, 1999-2000, 2002, 2005; AA, 1999).
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Yep - African American women are represented at the rodeos too! A couple of the cowgirl organizations are the Cowgirls of Color (
Read more
) and you can find the doing their thing as members of the Black Professional Cowboys and Cowgirls Association
Read More
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There is an
Audio Version
of
Jaxon's Magical Adventure with Black Inventors and Scientists
.
If you don't feel like reading - now you can listen to this great story about a young boy who learns about the many things African American have created or made better that we use almost everyday in a digital format!
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