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A rider from the 9th US Cavalry, one of several segregated units called the Buffalo Soldiers.

Meet The Black Cowboys Who Shaped Colorado History

The gunslingers, innovators, and explorers who carved their destinies from the sprawling promise of the West.
by Corey Buhay via Atlas Obscura on May 29, 2024
Posters for Beyonce's "Cowboy Carter" album.
partner

History Explains the Backlash to Beyoncé's 'Cowboy Carter'

Black cowboys made up as much as a quarter of working ranch hands during late 19th century. That legacy has been obscured.
by Elyssa Ford, Rebecca Scofield via Made By History on April 12, 2024
Premiere of The Gaucho at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, November 4, 1927.

The Gaucho Western

When Hollywood went down Argentine way.
by Federico Perelmuter via Lapham’s Quarterly on January 23, 2023
An 1886 illustration of a cowboy and cow camp.

When Texas Cowboys Fought Private Property

When cattle barons carved up Texas with barbed wire in the late 19th century, cowboys formed fence-cutting gangs to preserve the open range.
by David Griscom via Jacobin on October 4, 2022
At the filling station and garage at Pie Town, New Mexico, in October 1940. Photo by Russell Lee, FSA/Library of Congress.

Cowboy Progressives

You likely think of the American West as deeply conservative and rural. Yet history shows this politics is very new indeed.
by Daniel J. Herman via Aeon on April 8, 2022
Still from a video game animation of a Black cowboy aiming a pistol at another.

‘Old Town Road’ and the History of Black Cowboys in America

A songwriter-historian weighs in on the controversy over Lil Nas X’s country-trap hit.
by Dom Flemons, Jonathan Bernstein via Rolling Stone on April 5, 2019

The Lesser-Known History of African-American Cowboys

One in four cowboys was black. So why aren’t they more present in popular culture?
by Katie Nodjimbadem via Smithsonian on February 13, 2017
Arthur Morgan from video game Red Dead Redemption 2 sporting a gun and cowboy hat.

Cult of the Cowboy: Inside the Toxic Adoration of an All-American Obsession

Video games, violence and the enduring allure of the vigilante hero.
by Rachel Wagner via Literary Hub on February 26, 2025

Can the Rodeo Save a Historic Black Town?

One woman’s quest to rescue Boley, Oklahoma.
by Caleb Gayle via The Atlantic on December 17, 2024
Mario Van Peebles in Outlaw Posse.

How a Century of Black Westerns Shaped Movie History

Mario Van Peebles' "Outlaw Posse" is the latest attempt to correct the erasure of people of color from the classic cinema genre.
by Chris Klimek via Smithsonian on March 1, 2024
Train cars between drifts of snow up to the top of the engine, with onlookers watching

The Monster Blizzard That Turned Kansas Into a Frozen Wasteland

The 1886 blizzard imperiled settlers and left fields of dead cattle in its wake.
by Erin Blakemore via HISTORY on January 17, 2024
A man wearing a cowboy outfit shoots at a series of targets in a sand pit

Home on the (Firing) Range: Gunfight Reenactments, “Old West” Competitive Shooting, and the Myth of Authenticity

Reenactments of the frontier west, complete with cowboy shootouts on main streets, reproduce a narrative of history that is widely accepted by millions.
by Jennifer Tucker via The Panorama on November 15, 2023
A rider hangs tough during a rodeo at Madison Square Garden in New York, 1957.

A Brief History of the Rodeo

The humble origins and complex future of cowboy competition.
by Lila Thulin, Chris La Tray via Smithsonian on July 7, 2022
Vintage photograph of black cowboy George McJunkin on a horse in New Mexico.

A Hidden Figure in North American Archaeology

A Black cowboy named George McJunkin found a site that would transform views about the history of Native Americans in North America.
by Stephen E. Nash via Sapiens on January 20, 2022

Why It’s Time To Retire The Whitewashed Western

The original cowboys were actually Indigenous, Black and Latinx, but that's not what Hollywood has generally led us to believe.
by Inez Franco via BESE on October 24, 2019
African-American cowboys in Bonham, Texas, circa 1913

The Real Texas

What is Texas? Should we even think about so large and diverse a place as having an essence that can be distilled?
by Annette Gordon-Reed via New York Review of Books on October 24, 2019

On the Range

Excavations at a ranch in the southern High Plains show how generations of people adapted to an iconic Western landscape.
by Eric A. Powell via Archaeology Magazine on April 1, 2019

Debunking the Capitalist Cowboy

Business schools fetishize innovation, but their heroes succeeded due to manipulation of corporate law, not personal brilliance.
by Nan Enstad via Boston Review on March 20, 2019
Painting of the mouth of a cave.

Down in the Hole: Outlaw Country and Outlaw Culture

Country music has often stood, as it were, with one foot in and one foot out of the cave.
by Max Fraser via Southern Cultures on October 16, 2018

Was the Real Lone Ranger a Black Man?

The amazing true story of Bass Reeves, the formerly enslaved man who patrolled the Wild West.
by Thaddeus Morgan via HISTORY on February 1, 2018
A group of people riding horses on a dude ranch.

The Rise and Resilience of Dude Ranches

Dude ranches have been a popular American vacation spot for more than one hundred years.
by Teresa Bitler via The Saturday Evening Post on February 3, 2025
Scene from "Smokey and the Bandit" of Burt Reynolds talking on a CB radio.

"A Long Way to Go and a Short Time to Get There"

In the 1970s, trucker films like "Smokey and the Bandit" celebrated rebellious, working-class solidarity and freedom, with complex politics at play.
by Adrian Daub via Dreams in the Which House on November 3, 2024
A screenshot from "Red Dead Redemption 2" of cowboy protagonist Arthur Morgan riding a horse in a western landscape.

What Red Dead Redemption II Reveals About Our Myths of the American West

On the making of a centuries-old obsession at the heart of American national identity.
by Tore C. Olsson via Literary Hub on August 28, 2024
Illustration imagining Karl Marx sitting on a ranch in Texas.

Marx Goes to Texas

Drawn to communities of German socialist expatriates in the area, Marx once considered making his way to Texas.
by Ryan Moore via Protean on August 11, 2024
Design drawing for the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Competition, 1947.
original

A Gateway to the Past

The Arch in St. Louis stands as a monument to contradictory histories.
by Ed Ayers on September 13, 2023
Chuck Norris as Sergeant Cordell Walker in Walker: Texas Ranger.

Walkers and Lone Rangers: How Pop Culture Shaped the Texas Rangers Mythology

Texas’s elite police force has long played the hero in film and television, although the reality is far more complex.
by Sean O'Neal via Texas Monthly on November 16, 2022
Bass Reeves

The Resurrection of Bass Reeves

Today, the legendary deputy U.S. marshal is widely believed to be the real Lone Ranger. But his true legacy is even greater.
by Christian Wallace via Texas Monthly on June 22, 2021
A political cartoon featuring Uncle Sam holding a magnet.

America's Unending Struggle Between Oligarchy and Democracy

A new book charts the long contest between elites and the forces of democracy seeking to dismantle their power.
by Manisha Sinha via The Nation on October 6, 2020
Book cover of "Ride the Devil's Herd," featuring a mustachioed man wearing a hat

Wyatt Earp Does Not Rest in Peace

A pair of new books about US Marshal Wyatt Earp are now out. Only one of them shoots straight.
by Allen Barra via Los Angeles Review of Books on August 19, 2020

Clipping the Devil's Rope

How barbed wire sparked a cowboy war and changed the American West.
by Andy Warner via The Nib on February 17, 2020
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