MLK rodeo making first appearance

Promoter hopes to raise profile of black cowboys

James B. Meadow, Rocky Mountain News

Published January 14, 2006 at midnight

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From out of the west, spurs flashing, chaps flailing, riding hell-bent in the saddle across the endless prairie, as impossible to see as a ghost at high noon, why, look - it's the black cowboy!

Well, actually, you'd have to look very hard to see one, given the centuries-long invisibility of black cowpokes in the standard saga of the West.

But, come Monday, that skewed saga just might get a revisionist kick in the hindquarters when the first Martin Luther King Jr. African-American Heritage Rodeo of Champions arrives in a blaze of ridin', ropin', bull-doggin', steer-undecoratin' glory.

About 50 men and women - including local 18-year-old bull-riding phenom Jamon Turner - will take center stage at the National Western Stock Show, intent on winning $40,000 in prize money with displays of guts, pluck and horsemanship while at the same time demonstrating that the aura of American rodeo is far from monochromatic.

"Part of why we do this to eliminate the myth that there were no black cowboys," says Lu Vason, the rodeo's personable producer-promoter ("use whichever one sounds less shady").

"Our charge is to show the great role that African-Americans played in the West. The rodeo is educational, I'm trying to promote the culture of the black West."

Roots of black rodeo

It was nearly 30 years ago, after a "tons of fun" visit to Cheyenne Frontier Days, that Vason - a music impresario by trade - got bitten by the rodeo bug. Then, when he began learning about the rich history and lore of black westerners (the infamous outlaw Rufus Buck; the fearless lawman Bass Reeves) and rodeo riders (Alonzo Pettite, Bill Pickett), he got the urge to raise some biracial consciousness.

So he started the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo circuit, naming it for the man credited with creating bull-dogging, or, as tenderfeet might prefer to call it, steer wrestling.

During the past two-plus decades, the Pickett rodeo has played in 31 cities - everywhere from Beaumont, Texas, to Los Angeles. Although the rodeo has had a number of successful appearances in Colorado, it took Vason more than a decade to chisel a spot in the National Western.

In 1995, after the stock show initiated a Mexican rodeo event, Vason thought, Hmmm. How about an all-black rodeo, too?

Over the years, he discussed the possibility with National Western officials. But, he said, "the timing just wasn't right, I guess."

Then, two years ago, it was. Stock show vice president Marv Witt and Vason forged an agreement. Then it took another two years "to put all the pieces together."

On Monday, Vason hopes all the pieces fit perfectly. He hopes the rodeo will help focus a spotlight on the likes of black rodeo stalwarts such as Bobby Harrison, Glenn Jackson and Fred Whitfield.

He also figures this rodeo will help raise the profile of the Haynes Dynasty. That would be Sedgwick and Stephanie Haynes and their children Rueben Haynes and Kanesha Jackson - all four of whom, by the way, will be competing Monday. And they won't be treating it as just another rodeo.

"So to be able to compete on a day that honors what Martin Luther King and all the black cowboys have contributed to our country, well, the whole deal is special," says Sedgwick, 51, his Texas accent thick as a longhorn steak. "I'm pretty excited about it."

But no more so than a local cowpoke who's 33 years Haynes' junior.

"Yeah, it's sort of a privilege - no, it's more than sort of a privilege - to be competing," says Turner, who's been riding bulls for five years. "I mean, you look at all the great things Martin Luther King did as far as African Americans go, as far as all people go. Because of him I have the ability to be great at something, to excel with, well, not with no racism, but with limited racism."

'Pretty cool' to be home

Although Turner has competed all over the map - New Mexico, Wyoming, South Dakota, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, Montana, Nebraska - he says it's "definitely pretty cool" to be competing in his hometown, where "at least now I've got my friends and family. This time I can look up and see happy faces."

And perhaps a few surprised ones as well.

Sedgwick Haynes remembers performing at one rodeo - "It was about 10 years ago in Detroit, and an elderly black guy - he told me he was 82 - he come up to me and tears were coming out of his eyes. He said, 'I never seen a black cowboy until now. Never knew they existed.' He even wanted an autograph.

"Now, that means as much to me as the young kids who come to see rodeo."

Speaking of those young kids, well, Vason is pleased to do just that. After all, it's partly for their benefit that he decided to broaden his promoting purview from the likes of Natalie Cole, Earth, Wind and Fire, Carmen McRae and Dizzy Gillespie to include African-American ropers and riders. Which is why at the drop of a ten-gallon hat, he can conjure up memories like the time one wide-eyed youngster took one look at all those black cowpokes and asked in a voice full of wonder, "What spaceship did these guys come off of?"

As he recounts the tale, Vason's rich, rolling baritone laugh thunders across his office like buffaloes across the plain. Of course, he isn't laughing moments later when he confesses that Monday's one-night-only rodeo isn't likely to make a profit. At least not this year.

Still, it's about "making things educational and exciting," it's about laying the groundwork. As such, Vason is trying to tailor his two-hour show to fit his audience.

For one, he's reduced the number of events to bareback bronc riding, calf roping, bull-dogging, bull riding, barrel racing and steer undecorating (a timed event in which female contestants chase down a sprinting steer on horseback and pluck a ribbon from its neck), explaining, "We figured we had to do events that were exciting and easy to follow," as opposed to events, like team roping, where a certain rodeo sophistication is called for.

For another, he's packing the evening with some goings-on that aren't exactly rodeoesque.

Grammy-award winner (and local girl) Dianne Reeves will sing the National Anthem - on horseback - while actress Pam Grier (another native) will help unveil the U.S. Postal Service's new commemorative stamp highlighting Black History Month. Want more? Well, African-American country-western singer Miko Marks will be performing a tune or two and the late civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks will be honored. In other words, Vason envisions the MLK rodeo as a place where social consciousness meets bovine (and equine) consciousness.

Concerning the latter, there'll also be a demonstration of the original bull-dogging technique invented by Pickett.

Namely, having the cowboy chase down the steer on his horse, leap from said horse and then bite the steer on the upper lip while wrestling it to the ground. (A technique that is now prohibited in modern competitive steer wrestling, by the way.)

"That's the highlight of the rodeo to me," says Vason, hastening to add with his stampeding laugh that, for the record, he won't be the one putting the bite on the bull.

"Hey, I'm no cowboy," he says, although admitting, "I sure did grow up wanting to be one when I was a kid." His particular idol was Lash LaRue, "King of the Bullwhip," a movie and comic book hero who was as handy with a whip as he was with a six-gun.

Lash, of course, was wholly Caucasian, as was every other cowboy Vason laid eyes on. But now, some six decades later, even as Vason smiles at the memories of being mesmerized by the magic of Lash LaRue, he can also smile at the knowledge that countless young black kids - and maybe even a few more after Monday's rodeo - are able to be wonderstruck at the sight of real-live cowboy bruthas.

But that's what happens when you go giddyapping about, looking for the soul of the West.

If you go

• What: The Martin Luther King Jr. African-American Heritage Rodeo of Champions.

• When: 7 p.m. Monday.

• Where: The Denver Coliseum.

• Tickets: $15.

• Information: call 303-373-1246, or mlkrodeo.com.

meadowj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-2606

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