NPR's A Martinez speaks with photojournalist Ivan McClellan about his new book documenting Black cowboys, Eight Seconds: Black Rodeo Culture.
Learning about Black rodeos as an adult came as a revelation to him. McClellan spent nearly a decade documenting this unique culture all across the United States., out April 30, features highlights from that journey. The title refers to the minimum amount of time a rider has to stay on a horse or other livestock in order to register a score during a competition.
"All of this beauty and energy and environment just stuck to me," McClellan said about his first encounter with a Black rodeo."I saw thousands of Black cowboys and they were doing the Cupid Shuffle in the desert and they were cooking turkey legs. And there were Black folks dressed like traditional cowboys. There were also black folks riding their horses in Jordans and women riding with their braids blowing behind them and their hands with long acrylic nails clutching the reins.
He began posting his photographs of the event online. As his social media audience grew, McClellan was soon traveling the country in search of similar happenings. "There are Black cowboys pretty much everywhere. I mean, there are Black cowboys here in Portland, Ore., where I live, which I think is the last place that I would have expected to find them," said McClellan, who now runs his own rodeo."I went all the way to Oklahoma to realize that there were cowboys up the road from me who have been there for four generations ...
In fact, the term was once a pejorative for African Americans working on ranches and farms, while white cowboys were known as"cowhands."But ultimately, cowboy became"a shorthand for our noblest ideals," McClellan said."A lot of these things our popular culture is hesitant to attribute to a Black person. So I think to have a cowboy rushing in, saving the day with a black face just didn't jibe with the stories that Hollywood was trying to tell.
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