Art T. Burton Author • Historian is a pioneering historian, author, and educator dedicated to illuminating the overlooked history of
Rooted in Community
2026 TBC Book & Doc. Tour
The Black Cowboy Documentary, featuring Art T. Burton, is hitting the road on a grassroots U.S. tour—from New York to Los Angeles, Chicago to Houston, Miami, and beyond. Our mission is to reach smaller towns and local communities, but we can’t do it alone. Become a host and help bring this vital piece of American history to your community.
African Americans in the American West, and is featured in the documentary The Black Cowboy. Holding both a B.A. and M.A. in African American Studies, Burton spent 38 years in higher education before retiring in 2015, serving as a history professor and university administrator. He is the author of several groundbreaking, first-of-their-kind books, including Black, Red and Deadly, Black Buckskin and Blue, Black Gun, Silver Star—the definitive biography of Bass Reeves—and his latest work, Cherokee Bill: Black Cowboy, Indian Outlaw. Honored nationally for his scholarship, Burton has appeared in multiple History Channel and cable documentaries, served as a keynote speaker at major historical conferences, and is the historian for the National Multicultural Western Heritage Museum. His life’s work continues to shine a lasting light on the unsung Black heroes of the western frontier.
"This documentary took 10 years to put together. The vision was to tell the whole story of cowboys a story that has often excluded Blacks and Mexicans, even though they played a central role in cowboy history. This documentary fills in those parts. to keep this documentary truly independent we decided take the grassroots route and go directly into the heart of the communities."
