A Lester/Pinkney Selection

Black Cowboy Wild Horses A True Story written by Julius Lester and illustrated by Jerry Pinkney was published in 1998. This book is about Bob Lemmons, a freed slave who went west to become a cowboy. Lemmons tracked a herd of mustangs, convinced the horses he was a horse, then took the herd over and brought them back to the corral to be tamed.

Julius Lester was inspired to write this story after reading an interview that Lemmons did in his eighties about the event. He was contacted by friend Jerry Pinkney and when they discovered they shared a fascination with black cowboys, they embarked on the journey to create this book. The story is truly inspiring. In the back of the book Pinkney comments on the fact that as a child, he did not even know there were black cowboys and learned later that on in three cowboys were either black or Mexican. Julius Lester’s depiction of the hero that Bob Lemmons was is an inspiration to young African American children everywhere.

Jerry Pinkney’s artwork in this book is incredible. The water colored paintings are so detailed and realistic. The picture on the page where Lemmons takes over the herd is probably the best in the book. The picture depicts the horizon with the mountains in the background and Lemmon and the herd in the foreground. The colors are beautiful. In the clouds above the horizon, Pinkney has outlined horses running with the herd. It is truly inspired.

Pinkney comments at the end of the book about how young boys’ (from is childhood) self esteem would have been enhanced had they even known the existence of heroes like Bob Lemmons. This book is a wonderful step in righting that wrong!

Julius Lester’s other books include From Slave Ship to Freedom Road, To Be A Slave, and Long Journey Home: Stories from Black History. Some of Jerry Pinkney’s othe works are The Nightingale, Minty: A Story of Young Harriet Tubman and The Talking Eggs. Together they have worked on Sam and the Tigers and John Henry just to name a couple.