The Stark Museum of Art looked like a movie scene Saturday afternoon. The pioneers who faced adversity and fought injuries are honored and cheered.
There they were in person– 83-year-old Myrtis Dightman, known as “The Jackie Robinson of Rodeo; 79-year-old Cleo Hearn, the first African American awarded a rodeo college scholarship; and the 86-year-old Bailey’s Prairie Kid, who rode on his father’s saddle when he was a baby.
They were part of a discussion the museum hosted for the exhibit “Portraits from Cowboys of Color: Photographs by Don Russell.” The 65-year-old Russell, who is white, was also part of the panel. Sitting in the middle was “youngster” Jason Griffin, a current Cowboy of Color whose portrait has become the focus in the promotion for the show.
More than 100 people attended the discussion and and laughed at the tales of the old cowboys. The audience was so enthusiastic that Hearn, who produces the rodeo show “Cowboys of Color,” promised to bring the event to Orange.
Bailey’s Prairie Kid may not compete anymore, but he has the Western style. His real name is Taylor Hall Jr., and he also goes by BPK, the initials for his cowboy name. The name came from the Brazoria County area where he grew up and tended cattle with his father. Saturday, he wore a white cowboy shirt with red fringe across the tops of his shirt pockets. His red satin tie had the initials “BPK,” as did the red band around his white hat.
African-American cowboys were written out of the movies and television shows of the 20th Century, but historians estimate that a quarter of the cowboys that worked cattle were black. Writer Larry McMurtry included a black cowboy as part of the core group of Gus and Call’s crew in the Pulitzer-Prize winning novel Lonesome Dove. Danny Gover played Joshua Deets in the epic television classic.
As rodeos with competing cowboys developed, the African-Americans were usually not allowed in the paying competitions for whites. Myrtis Dightman in 1967 became the first black to compete for the national rodeo championship. Media across the world followed his quest. He ended up third, but his protege later took the title.
The July edition of Texas Monthly magazine has a photograph of Dightman on the cover and a detailed story of his career.
Jim Surber of Sabine River Ford came Saturday with a copy of the magazine for Dightman to sign. He also came to see Hearn again. Hearn used the rodeo scholarship to earn a business degree. He then went to work for Ford Motor Company for 30 years, ending up as an executive. Surber had met Hearn years ago through Ford. Hearn back then invited him to a rodeo in Mesquite. “Of course,” Surber said about going.
Jason Griffin, the young one of the group, has his Russell portrait used as the giant banner along the exterior side of the museum. He’s wearing red chaps with fringe, a lilac shirt and denim vest. He also has a neck brace and his right arm taped up.
The tape is to prevent his ligaments from tearing as his arm clutches onto the bucking broncos he rides. Still, he has torn ligaments before. But he described Dightman, a bull rider, as the toughest. “He got kicked in the head by a bull,” he said.
Recently, Griffin was a contestant on the show “To Tell the Truth.” He stumped them.
The cowboys talked about competing in the days when white judges, who did not want them to win, “underscored” them. They chuckled about Marvel Rogers, an African-American who competed with white cowboys before them. Rogers, who always chomped on a cigar while riding, once legendarily rode a bronc backwards as a way to thumb his nose at judges who had underscored him.
After the discussion, Russell and the cowboys sat to sign the book that goes with the portrait exhibit. A crowd lined up. Before they left, the cowboys posed at the entrance to the exhibit and people lined up to have their photo taken with them. “One more,” someone would say before going up.
The Orange City Council this week passed a proclamation declaring Saturday “The Day of the Cowboy” locally, to coordinate with the National Day of the Cowboy declared by the governor.
Mayor Larry Spears read the proclamation to the cowboys. Like others in the crowd, he had a cowboy look, pressed white shirt, jeans and a cowboy hat. However, the hat sat high on his head. He admitted he had to borrow it from his dad.
He told the group the proclamation and the museum exhibit shows “We are open to everybody, black, white, Asian, brown.”
The exhibit will be open until September 29. The Stark Museum of Art has free entry.
-Margaret Toal, KOGT-
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