Black Cowboys in the American West: On the Range, On the Stage, Behind the Badge ed. by Bruce A. Glasrud and Michael N. Searles (review)

Seldom is a book academically rigorous and highly readable for the general audience. Black Cowboys in the American West is an exception. This anthology, edited by Bruce A. Glasrud and Michael N. Searles, greatly contributes to our knowledge of African American participation in the American West. It will be utilized in classrooms and by nonacademic readers. And for that reason, the editors have achieved their goal. Searles, in his concluding essay, claims that "it was this lack of recognition that produced the popular notion that black cowboys did not exist" (216). The authors of this volume have resuscitated the lives of African American men and women whose contributions to the Great Plains and the American West should not be forgotten.

The thirteen essays in this volume are divided into three sections: Cowboys on the Range, Performing Cowboys, and Outriders of the Black Cowboys. The first section, "Cowboys on the Range," begins with an important essay on African American cowboys and the livestock industry before Emancipation and follows with essays on three key black cowboys (and one daring black Seminole vaquera). Matthew "Bones" Hooks, Johana July, Daniel Webster "80 John" Wallace, and Nat Love, aka Deadwood Dick, are given the rightful recognition they deserve. It greatly contributes to our knowledge that the black cowboy experience here is individualized and not talked about in the collective. The exploits of these three men and one woman are both historically accurate and fantastically mythological, and the authors demonstrate how the myth often overtook reality for many famous cowboys (both black and white) in the American West. The second section, "Performing Cowboys," explores black rodeo in Texas and Oklahoma, musical traditions among black cowboys, and the Bronze Buckaroo, who was perhaps the most famous black cinematic cowboy, Herb Jeffries. The third section, "Outriders of the Black Cowboys," discusses individuals and subject matter tangential to the black cowboy experience but indeed fascinating. The authors discuss African Americans in Dodge City, musical cowboy Charley Willis, and legendary lawman Bass Reeves. But perhaps the standout essay in this volume is Miantae Metcalf McConnell's essay on Mary Fields. The story of this middle-aged African American woman, who first traveled west to aid Mother Mary Amadeus of the Ursuline order, is remarkable. Mary Fields lived five lives in one lifetime.

Black Cowboys in the American West is a remarkably accessible volume that will encourage readers to explore more on black Western life.