Michael K. Johnson’s Hoo-Doo Cowboys and Bronze Buckaroos: Conceptions of the African American West is an important tome chronicling the history of blacks in early film and literature as it relates to the Wild West in reality and fiction. Johnson captures the images that were presented and the prose that was written about the black presence in American popular culture.
He also talks about black music and how some of the musicians in traveling venues were affected by performing in the American West in the early 20th century. This is new ground examined that should give all interested readers a better understanding of American popular culture.
– Art Burton, author of Black Gun, Silver Star: The Life and Legend of Frontier Marshal Bass Reeves