The “Images of Black Wyoming” exhibit is now on display in the Wyoming Gallery of the Centennial Complex as part of Black History Month.
Curated by University of Wyoming student Paige Emerich with a grant from the UW President’s Advisory Council on Minorities and Women’s Affairs, the exhibit showcases several noteworthy stories of influential African Americans who have impacted the state of Wyoming.
“Laws concerning Black citizenship and land ownership were not as rigid in the West, and with fewer people, there was naturally more opportunity for everyone,” Emerich wrote in an introduction to the exhibit. Above the introduction, the exhibit begins with an image of the Rhone Family home in Laramie.
The exhibit highlights key individuals such as James P. Beckwourth, Vernon Baker, Harriet Elizabeth “Liz” Byrd, Wyoming Territory’s first African American legislator William Jefferson Hardin, businessmen Barney Ford and Matthew Campfield, “Bronc Buster” Isom Dart, Wyoming basketball player Flynn Robinson and the first African American police chief in Cheyenne in 1950, James “Jim” Byrd.
One image in the gallery shows fully mounted soldiers in the Ninth U.S. Cavalry Regiment line up in parade formation at Fort McKinney, Wyoming, an early U.S. Army post from 1877 to 1894. The Ninth Cavalry was one of only four completely African-American U.S. Army regiments during the Indian War Period. Its members were informally known as “buffalo soldiers.”
Also on display are homesteaders James Nathanial Edwards and wife Lethel Edwards, Ranching Cowboys, the African Methodist Episcopal Church and Rodeo Cowboys featuring Bill Pickett steer wrestling at the 1904 Cheyenne Frontier Days and Abe Morris bull riding at the 1992 Frontier Days.
Completing the exhibit is a display of the “Black Fourteen Incident,” chronicling when 14 African American football players at UW wore black armbands to protest Brigham Young University and its parent church’s policies concerning African Americans in 1969.
“UW Coach Eaton did not allow his players to participate in protests, and after a confrontation, Eaton dismissed the fourteen players from the team,” the exhibit text reads.
The Centennial Complex’s Loggia room also has a digital exhibit about June Vanlee Williams.
“Williams was a fascinating African American women who was an actress, playwright, poet, journalist, and involved member of Karamu House in Cleveland, Ohio,” American Heritage Center archivist Leslie Waggener wrote in an email to the Branding Iron.
“The exhibit will up through the month of February for Black History Month,” Waggener wrote. “It’s one of the American Heritage Center’s traveling exhibits, so organizations can contact the AHC if they would like to display the exhibit at their location.”
“Images of Black Wyoming” will run until Feb. 23 and admission is free to the public. For more information contact Leslie Waggener at 307-766-2557.
