1 in every 4 cowboys was believed to be a Black man released from slavery despite the stories told in popular books & movies although the most famous cowboys of the old west were white
Many of the slaves were familiar with cattle herding from Africa #BlackHistoryMonth
A THREAD!
Bill Pickett (1871-1932), rodeo performer.
World famous black cowboy Bill Pickett "Dusky Demon" invented the rodeo sport, bulldogging (steer wrestling).
This is the actual man on which the movie D'Jango Unchained is loosely based.
His name is Dangerfield Newby, and he was a member of the John Brown raiders. He joined the gang to save his wife, Harriet and children from slavery.
Jesse Stahl (1879-1935), cowboy and rodeo star.
Jesse is considered the greatest of all bronco riders by many rodeo enthusiasts.
In a time when a bronc rider rode a horse until it stood still, Jesse became a legend and set the bar for bronc-riding during the 1912 Salinas Rodeo.
Isom Dart, originally known as Ned Huddleston, gained a reputation as a late 19th Century Wyoming Territory outlaw. He had many aliases including "Black Fox," "Tan Mex," and "Calico Cowboy".
Nat Love, aka Deadwood Dick (1854-1921), cowboy and saddler
Nate earned the nickname "Deadwood Dick" after winning a rodeo in South Dakota. As he tells it, he could hit anything within range of his Colt .45 revolvers or Winchester Model rifle, but killed only out of self-defense
Bass Reeves (1838-1910), lawman and deputy U.S. marshal.
Bass Reeves was the first African American commissioned to serve as a deputy marshal west of the Mississippi River. He brought to justice over 3,000 criminals and killed fourteen outlaws during his years as a marshal.
George Fletcher (1890-1973), rodeo star and cowboy.
George Fletcher was the first Black cowboy to compete for a world championship in bronco riding at the 1911 Pendleton Round-Up, Oregon's largest rodeo.
Texas cowboy Robert Lemmons was one of the greatest mustangers of all time. He became a legend in his day by perfecting his unique method of catching wild mustang horses.
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On this day in 1947, Activist & member of the Black Panther Party Mark Clark was born.
He was assassinated together with Fred Hampton by Chicago police & FBI, both at 21 years Old.
William O'Neal, an FBI informant, infiltrated the Panthers & set up them up for $300
A THREAD
In Illinois, where Fred Hampton was born, Black communities faced relentless police harassment and systemic barriers to essential services like housing and education in predominantly Black areas.
The Black Panther party, a creation of Huey Newton and fellow student Bobby Seale, insisted on black nationalist response to racial discrimination. The party’s Illinois chapter was opened in 1967 and Hampton joined in 1968, aged just 20.
Vicente Guerrero, a black and indigenous mule driver, became a revolutionary leader, Mexico’s 2nd president and abolished but ultimately executed.
The first Black President of Mexico.
A THREAD
Born in 1782 in Tixtla, Guerrero’s Afro-Mexican father, Juan Pedro, and Indigenous mother, Guadalupe Saldaña, shaped his roots. He worked as a mule driver, spoke Nahuatl, and built deep ties with Indigenous communities.
In 1810, he joined the Mexican War of Independence under José María Morelos. Despite no formal education, Guerrero’s courage and tactics stood out, fighting Spanish colonial rule with the motto “La patria es primero” (My country comes first).
Aunt Polly Jackson, was an escaped slave who worked as an agent on the Underground Railroad helping others escape.
She was known for fighting off slave catchers with a butcher knife and a kettle of boiling water.
A THREAD!
Aunt Polly Jackson, a former enslaved person, was fed up with the harsh and inhumane treatment that was meted out to her even in her old age and decided to escape to freedom.
She decided to escape via the Underground Railroad. She escaped and ended up in the North settling in Ohio in a settlement known as Africa, a settlement of escaped African Americans who had been offered land to settle.
On this day in 1865, enslaved people in Texas were notified by Union Civil War soldiers about the abolition of slavery. This was 2.5 years after the final Emancipation Proclamation which freed all enslaved Black Americans. #Juneteenth
But Slavery continued…
A THREAD
In 1866, a year after the amendment was ratified, Alabama, Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, Florida, Tennessee, and South Carolina began to lease out convicts for labor.
This made the business of arresting black people very lucrative, thus hundreds of white men were hired by these states as police officers.
Their primary responsibility being to search out and arrest black peoples who were in violation of ‘Black Codes’
Eatonville was the first all-Black city that was incorporated in Florida in 1887, located 6 miles north of Orlando.
It's the oldest black incorporated municipality in the U.S. It is the first town successfully established by African American freedmen.
THREAD!
The founding of this town stands as an enormous achievement for once enslaved black men and women. Having to live life being considered inferior to the white majority, African Americans finally found some freedom for themselves in Eatonville.
The town is the childhood home of Zora Neale Hurston, the most famous writer of the Harlem Renaissance she described it in 1935: "the city of five lakes, three croquet courts, 300 brown skins, 300 good swimmers, plenty guavas, two schools and no jailhouse." .
Gert Schramm, aged 15, was arrested and imprisoned in Nazi Germany for the 'crime' of being Mixed Race. He was the only Black prisoner at Buchenwald.
A THREAD
In May 1944, the Gestapo( official secret police of Nazi Germany) arrested Schramm in Erfurt under Rassenschande (racial defilement) laws, which criminalized relationships between “Aryans” and “non-Aryans” to enforce Nazi racial purity.
Schramm’s heritage—Black American father, Jack Brankson, an engineer, and German mother, Marianne Schramm—made him a target. His existence defied the Nazis’ hateful ideology of purity.