Black Cowboys: An American Story

Black Cowboys: An American Story opens at the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum on Thursday, October 8, with a reception from 6 PM to 9:30 PM. The exhibition is curated by Ronald Davis II, Ph.D., and it takes a long look at the role Black cowboys played in the history of the American West—a part of the story that usually gets left out of the textbooks.

Far from being a marginal presence, Black cowboys were the backbone of the frontier. They were expert horsemen, lawmen, and entrepreneurs, and they made up one in four cowboys on the trail. They didn't just ride along; they helped shape the region's economic rise. The exhibition brings those figures to life through a curated collection of personal artifacts and photographs, from the branding irons of the ranch to the silver screen, and traces their enduring legacy and influence on American culture. It's a way of bridging that history with the present, putting faces and names to a role that's often been overlooked.

The opening reception runs from 6 PM to 9:30 PM on Thursday, October 8, at the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum in Dallas, with tickets costing $10.