As a ten year old boy playing Cowboys with friends at my junior school in England, I was never allowed to be a cowboy, I could only be a native American Indian. I was told "Black boys were never cowboys", "Have you ever seen a black cowboy!" I had to admit that I hadn't seen a single black Cowboy. The only one's I saw were your white archetypal, squared jawed, all American gunslinging heroes. Even thirty years later I still didn't know black Cowboys ever existed. The Lone Ranger, John Wayne, Gary Cooper, Roy Rogers, Clint Eastwood, right up to The Marlboro Man, the list is endless, but not one single black cowboy amongst them. But, actually some of the first Cowboys were black. Black men born into slavery found they experienced less open discrimination and a better life on the open range. Even the name 'Cowboy' came from slavery days. From the Cabin boy to the House boy, field boy, Kitchen boy to Cow boy.
There are many reasons why the history books fail to mention the contribution of the black cowboys. But one reason I've heard mention is that history is nearly always written by the winners, in any case, I wanted to discover more about some of the amazing characters and meet some 21st century black cowboys working on the many ranches dotted around the South. I also intend to document the lives those Cowboy's who compete in the hundreds' of rodeo events across the country.
