Commentary

Myrtis Dightman: The Jackie Robinson of Rodeo

Dightman never finished higher than third in the world standings despite his skills and showmanship. He retired in 1989 after a 30-year career. In 1997, he became the first living African American to be inducted into the Rodeo Hall of Fame.

Published

3 years ago

July 17, 2021

Isabelle Price

Rodeo Sign Courtesy Jakob Owens Via Unsplash

Myrtis Dightman Jr.

Despite what television westerns and American lore demonstrate, 1 in 4 of the real-life trailblazing, sharpshooting, horseback-riding cowboys were Black.

While Texas ranchers went off to war, their slaves maintained the cattle herds. It was then that they learned to tend cattle, a skill that would make them invaluable in the post-Civil War era. The cowboy lifestyle would soon came into its own in Texas cattle country. It remains a way of life today, especially for Myrtis Dightman (1935–).

Born in Crockett, Texas, Dightman is an esteemed cowboy and a pioneer bull rider. His father, Myrtis Dightman Sr., was a Hall-of-Fame bull rider who broke the color barrier in 1964 when he became the first Black cowboy to compete in the National Finals Rodeo. Dightman Jr. was raised on a ranch and quit school at age 15 to work there full time, alongside his brother, after their father’s death.

Living the ranch lifestyle, cowboys and rodeos piqued Dightman’s interest at an early age. Yet he always found it odd that there were “so few Black cowboys competing in rodeos.” And that, he later said, was the main reason he “jumped into the rodeo arena.”

Dightman first participated in the Prairie View Trail Ride in 1957, which had been established that year to promote Black western heritage. From 1958 to 1960 he worked as a bullfighter. In 1960 he began as a bull rider, competing more than five times in the world championship bull-riding competition. In 1966 he became the first black cowboy to qualify for the Professional Rodeo Association National Finals.

As the competition years passed, he would come close to, but not touch, the championship title. This wasn’t because he wasn’t qualified, or that the bulls’ their bucking was stronger than his ride. According to Dightman, “The championship title would disappear from my grasp each time a judge put the pencil to the paper.”

Years later Dightman would ask a fellow cowboy what it would take for him to win a world title. His friend offered: “Keep riding like you’ve been riding and turn white.”

Dightman would go on to qualify six more times, finishing third in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association World Standings in 1967 and 1968. He also won the Calgary Stampede in 1971. The following year, he won the bull-riding competition at the Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo and finished seventh in the world in the Professional Rodeo Association National Finals.

Despite the covert racism Dightman endured during his years on the rodeo circuit, he never lost his inner drive. He made it possible for future Black cowboys to participate in national events, and win.

Isabelle Price

Posts by Isabelle Price

Up Next

#Black Girl M-A-G-I-C: Zaila Avant-garde 1st Black American to win the Spelling Bee

Don't Miss

Heritage Point, an Affordable Housing Complex, Opens in North Richmond

Isabelle Price

Click to comment

Commentary

Opinion: Lessons for Current Student Protesters From a San Francisco State Strike Veteran

How the nation’s first College of Ethnic studies came about, bringing together Latino, African American and Asian American disciplines may offer some clues as to how to ease the current turmoil on American college campuses over the Israel-Hamas war. After the deadline passed to end the Columbia University encampment by 2 p.m. Monday, student protesters blockaded and occupied Hamilton Hall in a symbolic move early Tuesday morning. Protesters did the same in 1968.

Published

15 hours ago

May 3, 2024

Oakland Post

iStock Photo

By Emil Guillermo

After the deadline passed to end the Columbia University encampment by 2 p.m. Monday, student protesters blockaded and occupied Hamilton Hall in a symbolic move early Tuesday morning.

Protesters did the same in 1968.

That made me think of San Francisco State University, 1968.

The news was filled with call backs to practically every student protest in the past six decades as arrests mounted into hundreds on nearly two dozen campuses around the country.

In 1970, the protests at Kent State were over the Vietnam War. Ohio National Guardsmen came in, opened fire, and killed four students.

Less than two weeks later that year, civil rights activists outside a dormitory at Jackson State were confronted by armed police. Two African American students were killed, twelve injured.

But again, I didn’t hear anyone mention San Francisco State University, 1968.

That protest addressed all the issues of the day and more. The student strike at SFSU was against the Vietnam war.

That final goal was eventually achieved, but there was violence, sparked mostly by “outside agitators,” who were confronted by police.

“People used the term ‘off the pigs’ but it was more rally rhetoric than a call to action (to actually kill police),” said Daniel Phil Gonzales, who was one of the strikers in 1968.

Gonzales, known as the go-to resource among Filipino American scholars for decades, went on to teach at what was the positive outcome of the strike, San Francisco State University’s College of Ethnic Studies. It’s believed to be the first of its kind in the nation. Gonzales recently retired after more than 50 years as professor.

As for today’s protests, Gonzales is dismayed that the students have constantly dealt with charges of antisemitism.

“It stymies conversation and encourages further polarization and the possibility of violent confrontation,” he said. “You’re going to be labeled pro-Hamas or pro-terrorist.”

That’s happening now. But we forget we are dealing not with Hamas proxies. We are dealing with students.

Gonzales said that was a key lesson at SF State’s strike. The main coalition driving the strike was aided by self-policing from inside of the movement. “That’s very difficult to maintain. Once you start this kind of activity, you don’t know who’s going to join,” he said.

Gonzales believes that in the current situation, there is a patch of humanity, common ground, where one can be both pro-Palestine and pro-Israel. He said it’s made difficult if you stand against the belligerent policies of Benjamin Netanyahu. In that case, you’re likely to be labeled antisemitic.

Despite that, Gonzales is in solidarity with the protesters and the people of Gaza, generally. Not Hamas. And he sees how most of the young people protesting are in shock at what he called the “duration of the absolute inhumane kind of persecution and prosecution of the Palestinians carried out by the Israeli government.”

As a survivor of campus protest decades ago, Gonzales offered some advice to the student protesters of 2024.

“You have to have a definable goal, but right now the path to that goal is unclear,” he said.

About the Author

Emil Guillermo is a journalist and commentator. A veteran newsman in TV and print, he is a former host of NPR’s “All Things Considered.”