Black Cowboys in Texas
One of the most well-known cultural figures in America is the cowboy. The imagery associated with cowboys is extremely consistent. When you think of a cowboy, you picture a rugged, white, middle-aged man dressed in traditional Western clothes. There is a strong correlation between cowboys and whiteness. However, the reality is that cowboy culture and customs have a long history among Black Texans that is often covered up, much like many other untold tales in America.
In the article, The Unsung American Hero by Amarie Gipson, there is evidence that 25% of Texas’ settlers were enslaved as early as 1825. African Americans would go on to become the most adept “cowhands” because of the heavy reliance on the slave population’s labor for herding cattle in the region that would become the Lone Star State. Gipson mentions the importance of learning about Western culture which is why she shines light on organizations like the Black Professional Cowboys and Cowgirls Association in Crosby, Texas and the Black Cowboy Museum in Rosenberg, Texas.
In Katie Nodjimbadem’s article, The Lesser-Known History of African-American Cowboys, she discusses the fact that even though African-American cowboys are not heavily discussed today, historians estimate that 1 in 4 cowboys were black. Many African-American cowboys became equipped with the skill set to be cowboys while still slaves. Ranch owners went to support other Southern states during the Civil War, and relied on their slaves to herd their cattle and maintain the land. Once the Emancipation Proclamation was set into action, desperate ranch owners were now faced with paying skilled free African-American ranch hands. Free African-Americans who had these herding skills were in great demand when ranchers started selling livestock to Northern states and needed herds of cattle physically transported to shipping points. According to Nat Love, an African-American cowboy, even though they were discriminated against in towns they passed, the camaraderie of cowboys made him recall these memories with fondness.
In Black Cowboys in the 19th Century West (1850–1900), Samual Momodu discusses some of the most significant post-Civil War cowboys such as Pete Staples, Bose Ikard and Daniel Wallace. Each cowboy participated in the earliest cattle drives but Daniel Wallace was the one who created the cattle brand Momodu also mentions Jim Perry who was one of the Black cowboys on the 3 million acre XIT Ranch in the Texas Panhandle. By 1890, the 473 African- American cowboys in Texas made up under 3 percent of the state’s overall cowboy population. By that time, the proportion of Black cowboys in the West was only about 2 percent as these workers started looking for higher paying jobs in other industries.
When thinking about the class reading, “Where do we go from here?” by Isabel Wilkerson, we made the connection to the concept of Black cowboys. This piece discusses discrimination and racism in the United States and how we continue to be uncertain of how to combat these systemic issues. Wilkerson focuses a lot on how history is always repeating itself, and how we seem to be in this continuing feedback loop of repeating a past that our country refuses to address. She goes on to discuss how any time there is Black advancement in the United States, it is immediately followed by overshadowing by white people. We see this with the concept of Black cowboys. Black cowboys were a huge part of culture throughout the western world of the United States, specifically Texas. These men and women were paving the way of southern culture by making up a large percentage of the population of cowboys during this time period. However, like most things in the United States that are started by Black people, it was taken away by whiteness. The image of the cowboy quickly became directly associated with whiteness, and that connection stuck. Although this was such a prominent part of Black, southern culture, it was immediately taken and corrupted by whiteness due to the never ending cycle of systemic racism that we can not escape.
At the highest point of popularity of cattle-herding, Beyoncé’s home state, Texas, consisted of the most Black cowboys in the United States. Beyoncé’s “Daddy Lessons,” is the only country song on her album, Lemonade, showcasing Beyoncé’s southern roots. The music video displays a plethora of crucial imagery commenting on Black Southern culture and the concept of Black cowboys. The opening scene where Beyonce first starts singing depicts both her and an older gentleman wearing traditional southern clothing, such as cowboy hats and boots. The first lyrics that are spoken are “Texas. Texas. Texas.” We immediately see the nod to Southern culture and the emphasis on the state of Texas and the history within it. Another prominent scene in the music video depicts Beyoncé on horseback riding in front of a Black man in a cowboy hat, where she is barefoot and dressed in denim. The imagery within the music video is fighting the common perceptions of cowboys that have such a strong association to whiteness. Beyoncé uses these depictions and images to comment on how disregarded Black cowboys are and to demonstrate the realness that is so often overlooked.
The concept of Black cowboys in Texas is a large and unspoken part of Southern culture, even though the most association with cowboys is whiteness. As seen by other events in the past, the story of the African-American cowboy perspective was written over by stories of white cowboys. With the use of imagery in mainstream media by Beyoncé or organizations like the Black Professional Cowboys and Cowgirls Association, we can continue to share these stories and shed light on the past.
