A Writing Nerd's Home

Interested in cowboys and/or the American West? Read this book.

Meticulously researched and deeply engaging, Black Cowboys in the American West: On the Range, on the Stage, behind the Badge, (edited by Bruce A. Glasrud and Michael N. Searles) explores the impact Black cowboys had on the Wild West. They once made up a quarter of all cowboys, yet their contributions have been largely erased from history, Hollywood, and popular imagination. This book restores these stories, showing how central Black people were to the economic, cultural, and social fabric of the region.

The book is organized into three parts:

Cowboys on the Range explores Black cowboys’ roles in the livestock industry before and after Emancipation, daily life on the range, and highlights figures like Mathew “Bones” Hooks, Nat Love, “80 John” Wallace, and Johana July.

Performing Cowboys focuses on Black cowboys in entertainment, including rodeos, Herb Jeffries’ film career, and musical traditions tied to cowboy life.

Outriders of the Black Cowboys highlights other influential Black figures such as “Stagecoach Mary” Fields, Charley Willis, lawman Bass Reeves, and the Black experience in Dodge City during its wild west era. My favorite section of the book.

If you're worried a historical essay collection might feel uneven or dry at some points, that's definitely not the case here. If I wasn't pausing regularly to take notes, I would've blasted through the book.

No transphobes allowed, only transborbs.

Check out my stuff!

📚Get your library card here!

OH MY GOD?????😭🥹

#better than any disney movies

Edit: they made sure their injured friend was okay too omg

The Corgi’s name is apparently “Big Fat” AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA