This is Brianna Noble on her horse Dapper Dan in Oakland, California back in June.
She was the first documented rider to join the Black Lives Matter protests
and she was the first of many.
The images of Brianna and her fellow riders were so powerful and arresting
because a lot of us hadn't seen this before.
Nobody is going to ignore a black woman on a really big horse.
Mounted police have sort of been used to control demonstrators but in this case,
horses were on the other side.
But the quintessential image of a cowboy is not a black man or woman but maybe it should be.
The black cowboys were the first cowboys.
[Title:] Why America's first cowboys were black
So what is a cowboy? It may seem like a silly question but it's a good place to start.
Cowboy was actually a term reserved specifically for black ranchers: slaves.
Back in the day if you saw a white boy that was riding a horse he was called a cowhand
in Texas and the black guys were called cowboys because they would say, 'hey boy go get that cow.'
Larry knows this history well.
He comes from a long line of cowboys himself.
My dad was a cowboy, my uncles were cowboys, and everybody I knew in my family were cowboys.
And I asked my dad one time when I was about six, I said, 'dad, where are the white cowboys?'
He said, 'boy, they don't want to do this kind of work it's like picking cotton.'
You know, it was a hard job.
By 1860, over 30% of texans were slaves so really it's not that surprising that many historians estimate
that one in four cowboys were black.
But Larry disagrees. He thinks there were many more.
When they did the census, they would go out to a ranch
a more and they would count cowboys but before the census men get there
they would hide about 30 or 40 cowboys, black cowboys, in the woods
because they didn't want to pay taxes.
After slavery was abolished, white cattle farmers had to hire these skilled African-Americans
because as we'll see along with the mexican vaqueros they were some of the best cattle ranchers in the country
and it's their stories that inspired the romanticism of the Old West.
This is Nat Love. He was a cowboy. He was an expert marksman.
They called him Deadwood Dick because he was good with a gun.
He became one of the best cowboys in the world and a lot of cowboys on tv, the white cowboys,
they were imitating Deadwood Dick.
Or Bill Pickett. He invented bulldogging, the act of wrestling cattle to the ground by their horns.
Then there was Bose Ikard who pioneered cattle drives on the famous Goodnight-Loving trail.
And we have to mention Bass Reeves.
He was the real lone ranger.
He was probably the best marshal in the world.
He captured over 3000 convicts in his lifetime.
And it wasn't just men. Johanna July was known for her ability to tame wild horses
and this gained the attention of the US army who hired her.
Despite this long history, there has always been very little visibility for black cowboys.
These were figures who were known in sort of regional context but weren't really given the
proper sort of national and international platform that they really deserved, right?
But you know these are people who whose names you do remember
but you know there are thousands of others who we don't.
So if you're getting your history from Hollywood your idea of cupboard culture might look like this.
From the thrilling pages of life rides a man you must fear and respect.
This is one of John Ford's classic westerns, The Searchers.
The film is based on a novel by Alan Le May who took direct inspiration, according to his notes,
from the story of a black man, Brit Johnson.
In the film of course, the hero was played by John Wayne, a man who as it happens,
openly supported white supremacy.
And we've already mentioned how The Lone Ranger was whitewashed.
They wouldn't accept him as a black man so they put a black mask on a white man.
The way that Hollywood you know whitewashed the whole cowboy story in the aesthetic, you know,
for the sake of american enterprise bothers me.
John Wayne, Marlboro man, Clint Eastwood; the american cowboy was the white cowboy.
I think this idea of specifically white cowboy culture, to me it's an image, it's an identity
of a sort of american-ness that has been transported and exported around the world essentially, right?
So I think for a lot of people, you know, who are really sort of protective of that story
and that narrative, you know, seeing black men and women excelling at riding horses
and becoming black cowboys and cowgirls really challenges, I think, two narratives, right?
Like both the american narrative and also a narrative of whiteness.
Up until the mid-60s, segregation laws prevented a lot of black cowboys from saddling up in public.
In the 70s, when more black cowboys were permitted to compete in rodeos,
Larry became only the second African-American finalist in the Texas state high school finals.
You can't see my name but i'm right here Larry Callies in the [inaudible]
and I was the second black to make the state final. I'm in my own museum.
These days there are plenty of rodeos that accept black cowboys
but there's one that's particularly special to the black horse riding community:
the Bill Pickett rodeo,
the only black invitational rodeo in America.
It celebrates the black men and women who are keeping the cowboy tradition alive.
You know, it's riders of color from all over the country and we're all like sharing our experiences
and it's just like the most dope thing ever, I love it.
And there are plenty of black horse riding groups across the country who haven't forgotten this history.
In Philadelphia, they have a program, you know, like in Detroit, like Compton junior equestrians
down in southern California.
And in recent years, the image of black cowboys has had much more influence in popular culture.
At one point, to be a cowboy was like, you know, nobody was hired so we want to bring that back.
We want kids standing in line for, you know, boots you know what I'm saying?
If black folks knew where they could go to ride I think that it would help a lot .
Brianna, the Compton Cowboys and many others are working to improve accessibility
for black horse riding.
We're really just trying to promote inclusion and diversity in the industry.
That's what gets me excited, you know.
Highlight our legacy, our heritage, our contributions to the culture.
Let us show our take on it, how we have done it for centuries.
I know that our history runs deep with this, you know, so I would love for the kids to learn about
and for me, to learn about too, you know?
Because that's one thing that horses will teach you.
When you have to humble yourself there is something new to learn every single day.
There's lots of history about black horse riding in the us that i didn't have time to talk about.
For instance, the first winner of the Kentucky derby in 1875 was a black man, Oliver Lewis.
And I didn't even mention the buffalo soldiers so I put lots of links in the description
to further reading if you want to find out more.
IIf you want to read about the lives of urban cowboys, check out Walter Thompson-Hernandez's book
about his time with the Compton Cowboys, it's really good.
If you want to see more videos from this series go to the Guardian YouTube channel.
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