Ep. 76 - Keith Ryan Cartwright & The Untold History of the Black Cowboys of Rodeo
After being inspired about Keith Ryan Cartwright’s writings on history of rodeo through a different lens; that of the unsung heroes of rodeo - the black cowboys! We are excited to have him on the show today to talk about this important conversation regarding diversity and rodeo.
Black Cowboys of Rodeo; The Unsung Heroes from Harlem to Rodeo
We asked Keith the impossible question and that was to highlight just a few standout pieces from the process of writing his book with our listeners.
Highlight #1 - Tommy Cloud
Born and raised in Texas with a house that had no running water or electricity with no car, just a horse and buggy. Tommy found his way to Los Angeles and while there may have been some stables prior to Tommy Cloud, in regards to a black man starting a stable and having black cowboy run a stable was a first. As recent as 1949 was when this barrier was broken.
Branded as the Compton Cowboys, the history and the roots and the depth of black cowboys in Los Angeles is seventy plus years in the making. To write about the late Tommy Cloud and get a chance to sit down and meet a lot of the cowboys that he mentored, and the cowboys that those guys went on to mentor, that was one of those chapters that Keith believes will really capture some people’s imagination.
Highlight #2 - The LeBlanc Family in Oklahoma
In Oklahoma, they have had a series of all black rodeos for nearly a hundred years. However, where the LeBlanc family started one, that is the longest, continuous all black rodeo in the country! This August (2021), when it takes place, it’ll be the 66th year in a row that the LeBlanc family has held an all black rodeo.
To meet them and learn that history in Oklahoma, that is a standout as well too Keith.
The Process of Writing
Looking both to the past to know the history and then to the new generation to take us into the future is so important. When Keith started this journey he didn’t have an agent, an attorney, or a publisher - he just had a little bit of his own money and a whole lot of passion.
“I have been so fortunate that I have always been able to get to the next step and the next step after that,” says Keith, who feels honored for all of the amazing legendary cowboys and their families that stepped into a family-like community with Keith. “We have shared a lot of laughter, a lot of heartbreak and a lot of loss.”
Whether sharing tears over a phone call, many amazing cowboys passed away while Keith was working on his book. To learn and meet these legends and then to lose them is extremely tough and helped to solidify Keith’s bond with the families that he got to interview and learn from.
History & Overcoming Racial Tensions
Myrtis Dightman, Bull Rider
Little Rock, Arkansas, was the host-city of a venue that wouldn’t allow African Americans into the venue. Myrtis Dightman, a black bull rider, was up in the draw for the bull riding at the venue one night. Typically, Myrtis would have to wait until the event was over before they would load his bull into the chute and then he’d get to ride.
When his bull was ready, an off duty police officer wouldn’t let him in because they didn’t allow blacks into the facility. Myrtis wasn’t sure what to do, but the pickup man rode down the alley and up out of the building.
“Myrtis, what is the problem?” He asked.
“He won’t let me in,” Myrtis explained.
The pick up man positioned his horse between him and the security guard and told Myrtis to go get on his bull. When the security guard told him it wasn’t allowed, the pickup man responded, “You’re going to allow him to go down and ride his bull or I’m going to whip your ass across this parking lot.”
By and large, cowboys are cowboys. Myrtis proved that he was as much a cowboy as anyone else to cowboys. A lot of issues had to do with people that weren’t cowboys, by and large, and there were times when that wasn’t the case. Eventually, Myrtis was so good that he impressed Larry Maran and Larry began to feel nervous about Myrtis driving around in his car by himself on the roadway. Larry also knew that him driving his car he wasn’t going to be able to get to enough rodeos to qualify for a world title that he believed he deserved.
Larry told Myrtis to “park his car” and in 1967 Larry offered his plane and to be his hauling partner. That year Myrtis finished third in the world - largely due to the fact that he was able to attend enough rodeos.
Once, though, Myrtis refused the offer to go on the plane to Jackson for an event. Larry, being from Oregon and a “hippie-cowboy” who had never really faced racism on the west coast, couldn’t understand why Myrtis absolutely refused to go to Jackson.
Larry naively thought that Myrtis was flying with him, hauling with him and that “everything would be fine.” Thankfully, Myrtis stuck to his guns and knew that in the late 1960’s that Jackson was not the place for him to go. In his research, Keith interviewed a couple historians at the civil rights museum in Memphis at the Lorraine Hotel where Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. While they had no idea who Larry or Myrtis were, they said that “your friend Larry was really lucky that Myrtis didn’t go on that trip.”
“They would have never got past the airport,” the historians said. “They would have killed Larry and made Myrtis watch and say that was his fault.”
“I wanted to put that Little Rock incident into the book and really understand Little Rock outside of the rodeo,” says Keith, who talked to Minnijean Brown who was one of the Little Rock nine who were the nine African American teenagers that were escorted into school by the National Guard to desegregate public education. These stories highlight how noble the man on horseback to position his horse the way he did and gave Myrtis the opportunity to “get on his bull and do his job.”
For the cowboys like Myrtis, it wasn’t just about breaking glass ceilings. He just wanted to be a bull rider and, like he told Keith, “I just wanted to see if I could be a world champion.”
To think of how many barriers he had versus the average white American to have that chance.
“The story like Larry Maran, that’s me spending time with Larry and him sharing that story. When I ask Myrtis about it, he just nods his head and says, ‘I remember that,.’ Myrtis doesn’t want to get caught up in it but he does understand his place in history but only because we keep telling him,” says Keith.
Larry Callies, Bull Rider & Country and Western Singer
Growing up a rodeo cowboy, Larry was a bit of a singer and, inspired by Charley Pride, he wanted to become a black country and western singer. While in Rosenberg, Texas, Charley Pride had a concert but it was in an all white building. Larry thought, naively, this is the chance for me to go - he was his hero after all!
Larry went to the concert and got chased out of the building by three guys that were going to lynch him if he was there. This was the world that they lived in.
Keith’s Unlikely Backstory
The Interview
“Well, the interview was very short and over the phone,” says Keith. “Basically, I had been writing and producing television shows… I had previously been an entertainment writer.”
A freelancer who had written reviews on movies and shows, one thing led to the other and Keith wound up writing for television shows for five or six years. Wanting to get back to writing, Keith needed a break from the entertainment industry and wanted something in the world of sports.
“I never thought I was going to write about anything other than music and movies, I really did,” says Keith but he was burnt out. His goal? Baseball. But the most surefire, quickest thing available to prove that Keith had what it took to cover a mainstream sports team. A mentor had a friend with the PBR that was looking to hire a writer.
“I can’t guarantee it, but I think if you call them they’ll offer you a job," said the friend and he was right. Keith went there thinking that he would go there for a season and that he would then be able to prove to the MLB that he had what it took to work for them. After a season, Keith wasn’t happy with a seasons-worth of clips. There were easy parts, but there were parts he didn’t know and he wanted to be better about being the guy, on the ground, traveling with a professional sports team.
By the end of the second season, Keith had realized that he had discovered this treasure-trove of real stories with unfettered access.
“I am a feature writer, I’m not a breaking news reporter… I am not trying to do that… I am a story teller at heart,” says Keith, who has known he wanted to tell stories since he was 8 years old.
Welcome to the Garden
Keith’s first experience at Madison Square Garden was unreal and he’s still not sure how to completely put it into words. “The Garden. That is one of the Holy Grails of sports.”
You start thinking of all the concerts, boxing matches, the 1930’s, 1940’s, 1950’s, 1960’s and the month-long rodeo that used to take place there. The history is second to none and instantly gives you goosebumps.
“I feel a chill in my back right now thinking of the first time that I went to Madison Square Garden,” says Keith. “That was pretty fascinating - one of those fortunate moments.”
The Garden isn’t just the big moments, Keith also got to watch bull riding in Brazil and other countries. Watching 40,000 people inside the arena and 30,000 in the midway outside of the building and these fans being so excited about rodeo and bull riding are part of the memories that you can’t forget.
Importance of People outside of the U.S. Knowing About Rodeo
“The iconic image of the cowboy is one of the last images that hasn’t disappointed. It’s heroic,” says Keith. “It’s ironic that the … quintessential cowboy that someone thinks of is John Wayne who was an actor that played a cowboy mostly. The bottom line is that iconic imagery is one of those rare images that we can hold in high regard with a lot of esteem and it has not, yet, let us down.”
Keith tells us how it’s important to find what makes you passionate and brings your conversation and energies alive - for him that was bull riding and the history of bull riding.
From Keith Ryan Cartwright’s website home page.
