Public Domain
Harlem on the Prairie movie poster
Although spending much of my Milwaukee childhood watching Western movies at the White House and Princess theaters in Downtown Milwaukee I never once saw a Black cowboy. And I never even gave it a thought.
Had not Juanita Carter—my movie-loving late mother – taken me to the nearby Regal at Seventh and Walnut, I would not have known they existed.
At the Regal, we saw re-releases of Harlem on the Prairie, The Bronze Buckaroo (both 1937) and Harlem Rides the Range (1939), each starring actor-singer Herb Jeffries. The latter was written by Spencer Williams, later to co-star as Andrew H. Brown in the hilarious 1950s Black TV sit-com “Amos ‘n’ Andy.”
But deep down, I’d guessed that somehow, somewhere in the Old West, there must have been Black men riding the range, roping steers, busting broncs—and yes, getting into gun fights, stealing horses and rustling cattle.
So I made it my business to learn about the Black men of the 9th and 10th Cavalry, known as Buffalo Soldiers; Nat Love, a.k.a. Deadwood Dick; Cherokee Bill; Ben Hodges; Bill Pickett, inventor of bulldogging; Mary Fields, a.k.a. Stagecoach Mary; and Isom Dart, killed by the legendary Tom Horn.
Public Domain
Buffalo Soldier 1890
Buffalo Soldier in the 9th Cavalry, Denver 1890
'West of Paradise Run' by J.J.R. Ramey
West of Paradise
And years later with the New York Daily News, it was instructive to interview Black author J.J.R. Ramey, creator of Sgt. Jonathan Frederick Shelby, in West of Paradise Run, the first mass-produced paperback fiction work about a Black soldier out West.
Set in Texas near the end of the Civil War, Ramey’s novel tells of the intelligence mission by soldier-scout Shelby to a Union Army post called Red River Station. Along the way, he hits Clarksville, Tex.—the same name as Ramey’s hometown—and things really start happening.
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According to Ramey, his book is the story of a strong Black man able to deal effectively in different situations, “which is not the way history texts tell it,” he told me.
The book, also featuring three strong female characters, was Ramey’s eighth. The first seven were purposely unpublished, he said. “Number one was a romance novel turned down by a white agent who said he liked it—until learning Ramey is Black. “He told me Black men don’t write romance novels,” Ramey said with a laugh.
Striking Pay Dirt
“Ironically, a Black editor kept West of Paradise Run for eight months before retuning it, saying “It doesn’t work.” Ramey finally struck pay dirt with a Black female agent and a Black female editor and it sold 24,000 copies of an initial 30,000 press run. His follow-up, Shelby’s Ghost, was awaiting publication when we spoke.
Ramey, who also was a radio anchorman for the National Black Network in Manhattan, told me he very much wanted to let people know that, indeed, Black people played an important part in winning the West. “The books we had in elementary and high school seldom mentioned Blacks except as slaves,” he said.
During his research, Ramey found that one of every three cowboys were Black, many doing jobs such as moving livestock, working corrals and riding the range, as well as serving in the U.S. Cavalry.
Ramey concluded our interview quoting the words of advice one of his West of Paradise Run characters, Rev. Maron Caldwell says to Sgt. Shelby: “Beware, the winds of change shadow your brow; beware my Black friend, death is in the air; all ways, all ways … listen to the wind … the wind will save the day.”
Ironically, a white Daily News printer I worked with laying out the editorial page (and labeled a racist by a writer colleague) was a former rodeo rider who shared with me his respect for the Black cowboys of yore. I was astounded and delighted.
