High Horse: The Black Cowboy tells the hidden story of the Black experience in the Wild West.
In a way, acclaimed comedian-turned-horror-auteur Jordan Peele is picking up the baton from Mario Van Peebles. Way back in 1993, when Westerns were having a marked resurgence in popularity, Van Peebles directed and starred in Posse, a high-aiming, low-achieving hip-hop Western that was determined to remind us that “one out of every three cowboys were black” as the title track by Intelligent Hoodlum sang.
That number is pretty accurate, and while Posse used fiction to demonstrate it (poorly – I gave the movie another spin recently, and age had not improved it), this new three part documentary series is going down the factual route.
High Horse: The Black Cowboy Trailer
What’s the plot?
As the official synopsis tells us: “This three-part pop culture and historical documentary confronts and reclaims the Wild West while revealing the story of the Black cowboy — a history that has largely been untold.”
There’s actually not a lot of detail out there at the moment, but putting my history buff hat on for a minute, the post Civil War period saw a massive migration of Black people West as they sought new opportunities, and many of them found themselves punching cows and rounding up strays. Add to that a fair amount of extant Black migration to Mexico, because Mexico banned slavery well before the US (fuck the Alamo, btw) and you’ve got several generations worth of incredible stories worth telling.
Who’s in it?
- Jordan Peele
- The legendary Pam Grier
- Rick Ross
- Glynn Turman
- Lori Harvey
Peele is also producing through his Monkeypaw shingle.
When’s it out?
High Horse: The Black Cowboy is out November 20 on Peacock in the US, and TBA locally,
What’s the vibe?
I’m a nut for Westerns in particular and history in general, so they had me at hello with this one.
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