Larry Callies didn’t plan to open a museum. However in 2017, he says God gave him a imaginative and prescient to create an area to protect and showcase the legacy of Black cowboys.
He didn’t know why on the time. What he did know was that Black cowboy historical past was hardly ever, if ever, taught in his Nineteen Sixties segregated faculty, the place he lived in Hungerford, Texas.
“I’m a Christian first and a cowboy instantly after,” Callies says. “And I do know when God closes one door, He’ll open a greater one. He opened up this museum.”
His Black Cowboy Museum in Rosenberg, Texas, is now one of many solely establishments within the nation solely devoted to this forgotten historical past. Via memorabilia, images and private storytelling, Callies brings to life the legacy of the Black cowboy, a legacy usually overshadowed, whitewashed or erased altogether.
Born and raised in El Campo, Texas, Callies rode horseback and roped cattle alongside his father, uncle and cousins. His father equipped inventory for native rodeos and handed down his cowboy expertise and values. However when faculties built-in, Callies’ cowboy boots made him a goal.
“When folks assume folks oughta be a sure manner, they make enjoyable of them,” he says.
Nonetheless, he stayed true to who he was. As a younger man, he entered rodeo competitions and, in 1971 turned the second Black cowboy to succeed in the state finals in bareback driving, only a few years after his cousin, Tex Williams, made historical past as the primary Black highschool rodeo champion in Texas in 1967.
Whereas Callies competed in rodeos, he dreamed of changing into a rustic singer like his idol Charley Satisfaction. He finally opened for music legends like Selena and carried out for dignitaries together with President George H.W. Bush and Governor Ann Richards. However simply as he was making ready to file an album, a neurological situation, vocal dysphonia, silenced his voice.
“My voice gave out proper when it was my time,” Callies says. “However once I misplaced my voice, God gave me one other.”
An opportunity encounter with historical past
Callies was a postal employee who retired in 2011. He determined to placed on his gear as soon as extra to work as a historic reenactor at George Ranch Historic Park on the outskirts of Houston. As he cleared the barn, he stumbled upon a photograph from the Eighteen Eighties exhibiting seven Black cowboys on horseback. That second shifted every thing.
“That was the primary proof I noticed that cowboys like me weren’t simply pretending,” he says. “We have been the unique.”
That picture and his religion and deep satisfaction in his heritage fueled the delivery of the Black Cowboy Museum.
Right this moment, Callies is not only the museum’s founder; he’s additionally its lead information and historian. 1000’s of tourists from throughout the nation, together with busloads every week, come to listen to his voice inform the tales that historical past books omit.
There was a cut-off date when popular culture whitewashed the tales of Black cowboys.
While you hear “cowboy,” you would possibly affiliate it with Hollywood icons like John Wayne or Clint Eastwood, however historians recommend that one in 4 cowboys have been Black. The Lone Ranger tv sequence (1949) was impressed by African-American escaped slave Bass Reeves.
Many have invested pursuits in these tales, notably with options within the New York Instances and season one of many Netflix documentary Excessive on the Hog: How African American Delicacies Reworked America, episode titled Freedom.
With the return of cowboy tradition in music, movie and trend, Callies’ work is important to the tradition. The “Yeehaw Agenda” is a motion coined by a younger Black lady from Dallas, Bri Malandro, highlighting Black cowboys and cowgirls in in style tradition. That is seen within the success of rapper Lil Nas X’s Uptown Street and Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter album.
Aaron Murphy has served because the museum’s assistant, dealing with each day scheduling, coordinating excursions and occasions and serving to handle the back-office operations whereas serving as a information himself.
Murphy’s journey into the world of Black cowboy historical past is certainly one of revelation.
“Once I first got here to the museum, I assumed I knew a bit bit,” he stated. “However after sitting in on Larry’s excursions and taking notes for 2 weeks, I noticed most of this historical past wasn’t taught anyplace.”
One level that struck him deeply was the origin of the time period “cowboy.”
“I knew the time period ‘boy’ was used derogatorily for Black males,” he defined. “However I didn’t know that ‘cowboy’ got here from that very same place. It was initially a time period used to dehumanize enslaved individuals who herded cattle.”
Hollywood later whitewashed these tales, pushing Black cowboys out of the body whereas elevating names like John Wayne and Hopalong Cassidy.
Murphy did his analysis to confirm Callies’ factors and located they have been traditionally sound.
“It’s legitimate historical past, simply whitewashed or fully faraway from historical past books,” he stated.
That realization fueled his ardour for the museum’s mission. Artifacts on the museum are sourced primarily from the encircling Southeast Texas neighborhood.
“Folks round right here maintain on to issues for generations,” Murphy stated. “When their grandkids discover these things, they usually donate them to the museum.”
The museum workers is presently inventorying these things, with plans to launch a web-based portal in order that faculties and researchers can entry historic paperwork and pictures.
“Some faculty districts have blocked our materials,” Murphy revealed. “Evidently, you’re not allowed to show this sort of historical past. However we’re going to maintain preserving it and sharing it, as a result of it issues.”
The nonprofit museum, which generated $200,000 in income in 2022, is about to broaden to a brand new 4,000-square-foot web site in historic Bates M. Allen Park in Kendleton. Bates M. Allen Park homes two historic freedmen’s burial websites, Newman Chapel Cemetery and Oak Hill Cemetery.
One is the ultimate resting place of former State Rep. Benjamin Franklin Williams, who turned the primary Black legislator in Texas and certainly one of solely 10 Black constitutional delegates throughout Reconstruction.
The challenge was to be accomplished in 2023, however modifications in funding have delayed it.
“We’re hoping to get a grant some place else,” stated. “These are the instances we’re in, however the present should go on.”
