Black cowboy Ralph Logan, undated, African American Museum & Library at Oakland Photograph collection, MS 189, African American Museum & Library at Oakland, Oakland Public Library.Prepare for a visit to AAMLO with these special topic resource guides.
This resource guide is intended to help users locate holdings at AAMLO related to Black Cowboys.
It highlights holdings in the following areas:
● Selected Library Material at AAMLO
● Selected Archival Collections at AAMLO
Other collections may contain relevant materials. Please contact AAMLO (aamlo@oaklandlibrary.org) with any questions or to schedule an appointment to view materials in person.
Selected Library Materials
The Adventures of the Negro Cowboys by Philip Durham
The Black West by William Loren Katz
Black Cowboys by Paul W. Stewart
Black Frontiers : a History of African American Heroes in the Old West by Lillian Schlissel
Bill Pickett, Bulldogger : the Biography of a Black Cowboy by Bailey C. Hanes
Selected Archival Collections
Oakland Black Cowboy Association Records. The Oakland Black Cowboy Association was established in 1976 as part of the preparation for the Oakland Black Cowboy Parade. The mission of the association is to “educate all the citizens of Oakland and the Bay Area about the role played by Black cowboys and other pioneers in the settling of the American West.” The association is governed by a board of directors whose primary duty is to plan and raise funds for the annual Oakland Black Cowboy Parade. The first parade was held in 1975 as part of the Oakland Museum’s exhibit, “Blacks in the West,” and was sponsored by the Oakland Museum Cultural and Ethnic Affairs Guild. The following year the parade was co-sponsored by a group of local businessmen, Oakland Traders, and the parent organization of the Oakland Black Cowboy Association, Blacks Unified to Motivate Progress (B.U.M.P.). Since 1977, the Oakland Black Cowboy Association has funded and planned the parade each year. The parade has traditionally been held in October each year and the parade route begins and ends in DeFremery Park in West Oakland. [Online items]
African American Museum & Library at Oakland Photograph Collection. Contains 114 photographs depicting African American cowboys and ranchers and the Oakland Black Cowboy Parade, circa 1930s-1990s. Select portraits feature Jesse Stahl, Lonnie Scoggins, Ralph Logan, Jim Clark, Ty Stokes, William H. Pinkney, and others.
Roberts Family Papers. Includes various photographs from the Hinds family photograph album depicting African American cowboys and ranchers, circa 1910s. [View online]
African American Museum & Library at Oakland Vertical File Collection. Selected items include administrative records of the Oakland Black Cowboy Association, planning notes of the East Bay Negro Historical society for a Black cowboys exhibit (circa 1988), programs and guides from invitational rodeos, a bibliography of items related to the Black cowboy at the Oakland Public Library (1976), and various research writing on Black cowboys in the West.
East Bay Negro Historical Society Records. Includes 11 photographs of the annual Oakland Black Cowboy Parade.
Thelma Gibson Radden Papers. Includes a photograph of Thelma Gibson Radden (1903-2004) standing with Black cowboy folk singer at East Bay Negro Historical Society open house, 1979.
Oakland Post Photograph Collection. Photographs appearing in the Oakland Post newspaper between 1963-2005 depict various portraits of Black cowboys, including Bill Pickett, as well as the annual Oakland Black Cowboy Parade.
Rhonda White-Warner Papers. Includes a publicity booklet for a 1990 Bill Pickett invitational rodeo salute to Black cowboys.
Additional Information
Search the library using the catalog.
Consult AAMLO's finding aids in the Online Archive of California.
We are working to create new resource guides. Have an idea for a new guide? Contact us at aamlo@oaklandlibrary.org.
