HISTORY & CULTURE

Meet a new generation of Black American ‘cowboys’

With these images, photographer Kennedi Carter smashes an age-old stereotype: Cowboys aren’t all white men on horses, battling Indigenous people.

Doniyel Hooker bought her horse, Chance, in 2018. Whenever possible, Hooker, a math and science teacher, brings Chance to her elementary school to provide new experiences for her students. She’s ridden Chance on trails and even through the French Quarter of New Orleans.

Story and photographs byKennedi Carter

July 18, 2023

7 min read

This is one of eight stories from The Past Is Present project, a collaboration between National Geographic and For Freedoms.

The first time I saw a Black horseman, I was maybe six years old. I’m 24 now, grew up in the suburbs of Durham, North Carolina, but my mother’s family is from Dallas, and we’d drive back to visit. I remember this as one of those things where you’re chilling in the back seat, you see something crazy, your head does a complete 180. Cowboys! The white-man-on-a-horse archetype; battles with Indigenous people: That’s what I was most familiar with, from going to the movies with my grandfathers. So about five years ago, as I began to photograph on film, I thought it would be very interesting to turn that cowboy narrative inside out a bit. It’s always important to expand the narrow confines of what we perceive to be American culture, and how we as Black people sit inside it.

I’ve had a whirlpool of feelings, being a witness to these people. There’s a rich history of Black American cowboys, but for my work I’ve used the word “equestrian”—more inclusive now, I think. For a long time I observed from the ground, asking equestrians whether I could photograph them; I’d never ridden a horse myself until I climbed onto one while visiting trainer Silas Plummer outside New Orleans. Did I feel fully comfortable or at home? No. I thought a lot about not falling off. But in the Louisiana town where my grandfather was born, his sharecropper family didn’t have cars, so one assumes they were using horses or mules to get around. That was beautiful to circle back to, very ancestral.

And my biggest takeaway, working with all the equestrians, is just how alive they feel when they’re on a horse. There’s a freedom that comes from interacting with animals, with nature, with the land. This is what one form of that freedom looks like.

a young black man with a black tank top standing in a yard next to a gold colored horse while holding the reins. — Horse trainer Silas Plummer holds Kash outside Child’s Arena stables in Bridge City, Louisiana. From wranglers to rodeo riders to jockeys, Black men and women have made their mark in many areas of horsemanship. In the United States, for example, an estimated one in four cowboys in the late 19th century was Black.

MaLana Lewis first rode a horse at age five during a camping trip. Her family later got her into barrel racing classes, and she has collected 24 first-place ribbons with her horse, Star. This photograph was taken in 2020, when Lewis was nine.

Born to formerly enslaved parents in Texas, Bill Pickett became the best known Black rodeo star at the turn of the 20th century. He created the sport of bulldogging, or steer wrestling. Pickett performed around the world and was the first Black man inducted into the National Rodeo Hall of Fame.
COURTESY NORTH FORT WORTH HISTORICAL SOCIETY

In the early 1900s, Black communities held festivals and rodeos in cattle country across various southern states. Here a group of cowhands show off their steeds at the Negro State Fair on the Fannin County Fairgrounds north of Bonham, Texas, in 1911. The annual event involved four days of parades, music, and rodeos. Racers also competed for prizes of $2 to $50.
courtesy of ERWIN E. SMITH COLLECTION OF THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS ON DEPOSIT AT AMON CARTER MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART, FORT WORTH, TEXAS

Trigger was Vinsha Torain’s first horse, and the two have ridden together since the college student was 13. Torain helps run the family ranch, started by her grandfather, in Siler City, North Carolina, and also heads Torain Ranch’s riding club, composed mainly of Black women.

Nat Love, also known as Deadwood Dick, was born into slavery on a Tennessee plantation in 1854. After the Civil War he moved west and spent 20 years driving cattle. He got his nickname in Deadwood, South Dakota, after beating out every other competitor in roping and shooting contests.
Courtesy Denver Public Library, Western History Collection

Jamel Robinson puts a client’s horse through exercises on a trail in Siler City. He started riding when he was four and training horses when he was 17. Robinson plans to stay in the business, which he learned from his father. “Horses keep me in a good mind space,” he says.

A resident of Durham, North Carolina, Kennedi Carter specializes in showcasing the wide and diverse range of Black experiences, from adversity and hardship to love and community. Her photography has appeared in British Vogue, the New York Times, and Essence, among other outlets. Follow her on Instagram @internetbby.

This story appears in the August 2023 issue of National Geographic magazine and is one of eight stories from The Past Is Present project, a collaboration between National Geographic and For Freedoms.