Lancaster cowboy Cleo Hearn, known nationwide as Mr. Black Rodeo, will be honored in a Dallas exhibition tracing Black cowboys’ history from slavery through the rise of rodeo. Black Cowboys: An American Story runs October 9, 2026, through April 18, 2027, at the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum’s downtown location.
According to a release distributed via PR Newswire, tickets can be reserved through the museum's website at dhhrm.org/black-cowboys-an-american-story. The exhibition was organized by the Witte Museum in San Antonio, Texas, according to the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, which previously hosted its own run of the traveling show.
The exhibition examines the lives and work of enslaved and free Black men, women and children who labored on Texas ranches and took part in cattle drives, spanning the period before the Civil War through the turn of the twentieth century, according to the PR Newswire release. Witte Museum CEO and President Michelle Everidge said the show explores what life was like for Black cowboys during that era, the release says.
From Enslaved Ranch Hands to Rodeo Stars
The Witte Museum says the exhibition combines biographical profiles, photographs, artifacts, multimedia and interactive displays. Its material traces Black cowboys’ work with horses and livestock and their participation in cattle drives, while also examining Black ranching families, rodeos, music and film.
Among the historical figures featured is Hector Bazy, who was born enslaved on a plantation in Grimes County, Texas, in 1851 and later wrote an autobiography in 1910, according to the Witte Museum. The exhibition also includes a film tracing the history and evolution of Black rodeos, the museum notes. By the twentieth century, the release says, Black cowboys had become land owners, lawmen, rodeo competitors, singers and actors — a trajectory the exhibition credits with contributing to Texas' economic growth and shaping the American frontier.
The scale of that contribution has long gone underrecognized. The National Cowboy Museum states that one in four cowboys who went on the trail was Black, a figure that Smithsonian Magazine says historians estimate as well. Smithsonian also notes that after the Civil War, working as a cowboy was one of the few occupations open to men of color.
Remembering Lancaster's Cleo Hearn
Hearn’s Lancaster and rodeo legacy gives the Dallas exhibition a local connection. He co-founded the American Black Cowboy Association and founded the Cowboys of Color Rodeo, earning the name Mr. Black Rodeo, according to the PR Newswire release. Hearn died in 2025; the exhibition will display his prize saddle, boots, spurs and photographs.
A Memorial Rodeo Is Also Scheduled
The Cowboys of Color Rodeo’s official schedule lists a Cleo Hearn Memorial Cowboys of Color Rodeo and Vintage Cowboy Reunion for May 29, 2027, at 1818 Rodeo Drive in Mesquite. It is a separate event from the Dallas museum exhibition, according to the Cowboys of Color Rodeo.
Smithsonian Magazine notes that in 1970, Hearn became the first African-American cowboy to win a calf-roping event at a major rodeo — a milestone that arrived two years before Bill Pickett became the first Black honoree in the National Rodeo Hall of Fame, in 1972, per the same outlet. The Dallas exhibition frames these individual breakthroughs as part of a broader legacy: the release states that Black cowboy legacies have inspired new generations to explore the past through music, film, fashion and design.
Museum Leaders on the Exhibition's Purpose
Mary Pat Higgins, president and CEO of the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum, said the exhibition brings to life Black men, women and children who helped shape the American West despite immense adversity, according to the release. She added that it aims to deepen visitors' appreciation of American West history and challenge assumptions, the release states.
Founded in 1984, the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum serves as an educational center that teaches the history of the Holocaust and advances human rights, according to the release. Beyond the Black Cowboys exhibit, the museum includes three educational wings, a 250-seat theater and a Dimensions in Testimony theater that lets visitors interact with a holographic image of a Holocaust survivor, per the same source. The museum's rotating special exhibition gallery hosts daily screenings and regular special events, the release notes.
The exhibition has appeared at several institutions before its Dallas run. The Chisholm Trail Heritage Museum hosted it from May 5 through August 26, 2023, according to its event listing. The Fort Worth Museum of Science and History lists its presentation as running from January 20, 2023, through April 13, 2024. The Autry Museum of the American West presented the show from June 14, 2025, through January 4, 2026, adding material on the Buffalo Soldiers, world champion bull rider Charlie Sampson and barrel racer Sharon Braxton, according to the Autry’s account.
Black Western history is not confined to museum walls, either. Horse Nation reports that Black Western culture remains active today within modern rodeo and ranching communities. In Dallas, the exhibition is presented by Bank of America and supported by the Ed Rachal Foundation, the John L. Santikos Charitable Fund of the San Antonio Area Foundation and H-E-B, according to the Witte Museum, with additional local support from American Airlines, the Dallas Tourism Public Improvement District, H-E-B/Central Market and NFI Industries, per the PR Newswire release.
