Demetrius W. Pearson - Black Rodeo in the Texas Gulf Coast Region: Charcoal in the Ashes

Black Rodeo in the Texas
Gulf Coast Region

Sport, Identity, and Culture

Series Editor : Gerald R. Gems (North Central College)

The Sport, Identity, and Culture series addresses the important role sport plays in social, cultural, and political contexts throughout history. While the series is primarily historical in its focus, it welcomes interdisciplinary projects. It is intentionally broad in its conceptualization, as sportits organization, practice, and meaningsexists both within and beyond the territorial, cultural, social, ethnic, racial, gender, psychological, and chronological borders that construct and define individual and group identity.

Editorial Board

Linda J. Borish, Western Michigan

Susanna Hedenborg, Malm University

Jorge Iber, Texas Tech University

Malcolm MacLean, University of Gloucestershire

Patricia Anne Vertinsky, University of British Columbia

Gertrud Pfister, University of Copenhagen

Titles in the Series

Asians and Pacific Islanders in American Football: Historical and Contemporary Experiences, by Joel S. Franks

The Miami Times and the Fight for Equality: Race, Sport, and the Black Press, 19481958, by Yanela G. McLeod

The Early Years of Chicago Soccer, 18871939, by Gabe Logan

Transnational Sport in the American West: Oaxaca California Basketball, by Bernardo Ramirez Rios

Sport and the Shaping of Civic Identity in Chicago, by Gerald R. Gems

Black Collegiate Athletes and the Neoliberal State: Dreaming from Bended Knee, by Albert Y. Bimper Jr.

Black Rodeo in the Texas Gulf Coast Region: Charcoal in the Ashes, by Demetrius W. Pearson

Black Rodeo in the Texas
Gulf Coast Region

Charcoal in the Ashes

Demetrius W. Pearson

LEXINGTON BOOKS

Lanham Boulder New York London

Chapter 6 reprint: Originally published as Shadow Riders of the Subterranean Circuit: A Descriptive Account of Black Rodeo in the Texas Gulf Coast Region, by Demetrius W. Pearson, Journal of American Culture 27(2) (June 2004): 190198. Reprinted with permission from John Wiley and Sons. Copyright 19992021 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Chapter 7 reprint: Copyright 2009. From Black in the Saddle: The Best Bull Rider You Never Saw, by Demetrius W. Pearson, in Racial Structure & Radical Politics in the African Diaspora, Africana Studies , Volume 3, pp. 183196. Reproduced by permission of Taylor and Francis Group, LLC, a division of Informa plc; permission conveyed through Copyright Clearance Center, Inc.

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021933835

ISBN: 978-1-4985-7467-9 (cloth : alk. paper)

ISBN: 978-1-4985-7468-6 (electronic)

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Contents

It was a struggle and pleasure researching and writing this book. The many hours in the field, libraries, museums, and personal collections gave me an unparalleled understanding of rodeo in general and black rodeo in particular. However, nothing was more rewarding than interviewing the many black cowboys over the years and listening to their respective stories and experiences, which have rarely been told and documented.