Channel 39. That’s a good place to get started. Like most kids in the 80’s I adored Saturday morning cartoons. And we knew when it was over because right after Looney Tunes (the last cartoon) American Bandstand came on. Followed by Solid Gold and Soul Train. The cartoon party was officially over for the weekend.

But one day, my Dad went into my room just as Don Cornelius started introducing the show, and changed the channel to 39. And it was in this moment I watched The Lone Ranger for the first time. That was followed by some combination of Have Gun Will Travel, or Branded, and then The Rifleman, Bonanza, The Wild Wild West, and after that The Big Valley, ending the day on Gunsmoke. Sometimes a western movie followed it, but I was outside playing by then. Gunsmoke was too grown up to hold my interest.

Men and women riding horses, guns blazing, righting wrongs every week, and every episode ended more or less on a positive note. ‘Until next week, my friends!’ was the promise, and I did my best to be there, with my silver popgun and fake cowboy hat. Appointment TV, indeed! As I grew older I started watching John Wayne and Clint Eastwood movies, loving them all (I have pictures of both men in my office) and while I greatly enjoyed their movies, something was always missing.

Me.

Or rather, someone who looked like me. As a small child I didn’t notice it too much, but as an older one I did. ‘Why weren’t there any Black cowboy heroes who looked like me? Maybe they didn’t exist?’ The latter was something I said to myself often. It wasn’t until I became an adult that I started to hear about Bass Reeves, Stagecoach Mary, Nat Love, Bill Pickett, and so many more people who never came up in my history books in school. Or television. Or movies. Or books. Now, in the year 2022 we are starting to hear about these fine folks, but we’re only just starting to scratch the surface of who they were and what they did to help shape the wild west into the most uniquely American thing on Earth. One day a thought came into my head, and before long I had the book written and ready to go. Now let’s enjoy a new journey that is filled with adventure, action, and some humor, featuring a new Black western hero everyone can cheer behind!