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

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Oakland Post: Week of July 24 – 30, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of July 24 – 30, 2024

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12 hours ago

July 26, 2024

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Oakland Post: Week of July 17 -23, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of July 17 -23, 2024

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Commentary

COMMENTARY: President Biden, The Constitution and Race

The Democratic Party needs to pause and reflect on the real issue, which is race and not an aging President. Once again, we see the Kool-Aid of division being swallowed, not by the MAGA Right, but by Democrats who know better and openly profess a love for democracy and the Constitution of the United States. So, the question is how can one love the Constitution and at the same time only obey those sections that agree with our way of thinking?

Published

1 week ago

July 19, 2024

Oakland Post

Dr. John E. Warren contends that it is the race of Biden’s successor, Kamal Harris, that is the real issue underneath the fearmongering about the president’s age. Courtesy photo.

By Dr. John E. Warren, Publisher
The San Diego Voice & Viewpoint Newspaper

The Democratic Party needs to pause and reflect on the real issue, which is race and not an aging President.

Once again, we see the Kool-Aid of division being swallowed, not by the MAGA Right, but by Democrats who know better and openly profess a love for democracy and the Constitution of the United States. So, the question is how can one love the Constitution and at the same time only obey those sections that agree with our way of thinking?

When President Biden wins re-election, his age or any other issue will only become a problem when there are signs he is unable to fulfill the duties of the Office. The 25th Amendment to the Constitution handles the succession process setting out how the Vice President assumes the Office of the Presidency and how the Office of the Vice Presidency is to be filled. The elephant in the room is Vice President Kamala Harris, who happens to not only be a woman, but also Black.

This is the same Black woman who was Attorney General of the largest state in the Union. She was an elected U.S. Senator from that same state which had given us the U.S. Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren and President Ronald Reagan.

She has been elected by the Democratic Party’s primary process which made Joe Biden the presidential candidate, and Harris the vice-presidential candidate.

So, is the real issue the age of a man who, in the last four years, rescued this nation from the brink of destruction?

Is it the Democrats opposing the President staying in the race who may have Alzheimer’s and memory loss, rather than the President who remembers what he has done and how he rescued a struggling nation?

Is it the Democrats complaining about the President and know that Trump has a better chance at winning against a last-minute replacement than running against a President who has already beaten him before? In knowing all these facts, especially the presence of the 25th Amendment, the only card left in the deck is race.

It appears that some White Liberal Democrats just don’t want a Black woman in the orbit of really becoming President and they would rather disgrace and destroy a good man because of a bad debate than take a chance on a Black woman running the White House.

Let’s not get it twisted. It was a Black Congressman from South Carolina, James Clyburn, who motivated Black America to vote for Joe Biden when it appeared that he was out of the race for the presidency.

It is the Black Vote that put him in office and it is the Black Vote of the Congressional Black Caucus who, in this race for the White House, is standing in unity with the Democratic leadership of the House of Representatives in a Republican-controlled Congress against whimpering calls from a few democrats for the President to “step aside.”

Once again, the clarion call is to stand with the Constitution and not be like the Supreme Court who is now stomping upon all that it stands for in an effort to protect and insulate the convicted felon that we, the people, would keep out of the White House.

A move to oust President Biden would surely guarantee an election victory for Trump.