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Black Cowboy William Pickett Invented Rodeo Event Called ‘Bulldogging’

As a young boy he’d watched herder dogs subdue huge steers by biting their upper lips. At around age 10, he decided to do the same but by using his own technique.

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Wilson Pickett

It was in the state of Texas that the cowboy lifestyle came into its own. The state’s vast lands had been populated with cattle since it was colonized by Spain in the 1500s. By the 1800s, millions of cattle grazed there, making cattle farming a “bountiful economic and cultural phenomenon,” according to author Katie Nodjimbadem.

Images depicted in movies and television shows of these cattle ranchers (cowboys) have mostly been of white Americans. Although Black cowboys “don’t play a part in the popular narrative, historians estimate that one in four cowboys were Black,” Nodjimbadem wrote. One  of them was William Pickett (ca. 1870–1932), who became a cowboy after completing the fifth grade.
Records show that Pickett was born in 1870 in western Williamson County.

As a young boy he’d watched herder dogs subdue huge steers by biting their upper lips. At around age 10, he decided to do the same but by using his own technique. After perfecting a unique way of steer wrestling -or bulldogging– and roping and riding he began performing stunts at public events.

Steer wrestling, a rodeo event during which a mounted cowboy (or bulldogger) races alongside and then tackles a full-grown steer, was invented by Pickett. If a cowboy is experienced, he can wrestle a steer to the ground in five to eight seconds. Standing at only five feet, seven inches tall and weighing 145 pounds, Pickett used his signature move to grab a steer by its horns, twist its neck, and bite it on one lip.

The 500–600-pound animal would then fall backward, allowing Pickett to pull it to the ground.
Once the steer was on its side with all four of its feet pointing in the same direction, Pickett was done. This rapidly became a popular contest at cowboy events, later becoming a standard of contemporary rodeo. Bulldogging however, has since been modified to reduce danger to the steer.

By 1903, Pickett’s career had taken off. This success spurred Dave McClure, an event promoter, to dub Pickett the “Dusky Demon” and bill him as the “most daring cowboy alive.” 

According to Texas history writer Lori Grossman, the term ‘dusky’ was “intended to disguise Pickett’s ethnicity whenever white cowboys shied from appearing on the same program as an African-American man.”

Pickett competed in rodeos large and small, yet amassing a significant record as a competitor was impossible. Although Blacks had not been officially barred from most contests, he was often billed as a Native American or not identified as Black.

The Wild West’s heyday quieted after World War I. Pickett’s show, the 101 Ranch Wild West Show, where he had been a headliner for 26 years, closed down in 1931. He died the following year after a horse kicked him in the head.

Forty years after his death, Pickett became the first black honoree in the National Rodeo Hall of fame. In 1989, he was enshrined in the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame.

Versions of Pickett’s bulldogging are still performed by rodeo athletes today.

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Oakland Post: Week of June 4 – 10, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of June 4-10, 2025

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Remembering George Floyd

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison acknowledges that the Floyd case five years ago involved a situation in which due process was denied, and five years later, the president is currently dismissing “due process. “The Minnesota Atty General also says, “Trump is trying to attack constitutional rule, attacking congressional authority and judicial decision-making.” George Floyd was an African American man killed by police who knocked on his neck and on his back, preventing him from breathing.

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Mural showing the portrait of George Floyd in Mauerpark in Berlin. To the left of the portrait the lettering "I can't Breathe" was added, on the right side the three hashtags #GeorgeFloyd, #Icantbreathe and #Sayhisname. The mural was completed by Eme Street Art (facebook name) / Eme Free Thinker (signature) on 29 May 2020. (Wikimedia Commons)
Mural showing the portrait of George Floyd in Mauerpark in Berlin. To the left of the portrait the lettering "I can't Breathe" was added, on the right side the three hashtags #GeorgeFloyd, #Icantbreathe and #Sayhisname. The mural was completed by Eme Street Art (facebook name) / Eme Free Thinker (signature) on 29 May 2020. (Wikimedia Commons)

By April Ryan
BlackPressUSA Newswire

“The president’s been very clear he has no intentions of pardoning Derek Chauvin, and it’s not a request that we’re looking at,” confirms a senior staffer at the Trump White House. That White House response results from public hope, including from a close Trump ally, Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. The timing of Greene’s hopes coincides with the Justice Department’s recent decision to end oversight of local police accused of abuse. It also falls on the fifth anniversary of the police-involved death of George Floyd on May 25th. The death sparked national and worldwide outrage and became a transitional moment politically and culturally, although the outcry for laws on police accountability failed.

The death forced then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden to focus on deadly police force and accountability. His efforts while president to pass the George Floyd Justice in policing act failed. The death of George Floyd also put a spotlight on the Black community, forcing then-candidate Biden to choose a Black woman running mate. Kamala Harris ultimately became vice president of the United States alongside Joe Biden. Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison prosecuted the cases against the officers involved in the death of Floyd. He remembers,” Trump was in office when George Floyd was killed, and I would blame Trump for creating a negative environment for police-community relations. Remember, it was him who said when the looting starts, the shooting starts, it was him who got rid of all the consent decrees that were in place by the Obama administration.”

In 2025, Police-involved civilian deaths are up by “about 100 to about 11 hundred,” according to Ellison. Ellison acknowledges that the Floyd case five years ago involved a situation in which due process was denied, and five years later, the president is currently dismissing “due process. “The Minnesota Atty General also says, “Trump is trying to attack constitutional rule, attacking congressional authority and judicial decision-making.” George Floyd was an African-American man killed by police who knocked on his neck and on his back, preventing him from breathing. During those minutes on the ground, Floyd cried out for his late mother several times. Police subdued Floyd for an alleged counterfeit $20 bill.

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