Cowboy Bill Pickett created a genius technique, and they hated him for it.

This black cowboy revolutionized rodeo.

So they wanted him to hide his blackness to compete?

I'm Sidney from Push Black, and you're tuned in to two-minute black history,

what you didn't learn in school.

Bill Pickett was a rodeo star. The white supremacy would tell another story.

Although in the early 19th century, one in four cowboys was black,

like the legendary Loneanger Bass Reeds,

they still tried to erase Pickett's blackness.

He'd invented bulldogging, a widely used technique to gain control in steer wrestling by biting a cow's lip.

No one had ever seen anything like it done before, and they didn't believe a black man could be so innovative.

What they did next proved their ignorance. They banned Pickett from rodeos because of white jealousy.

He had to deny his blackness and fully identify with his Native American heritage in order

to perform.

But he never let their racism stop his shine.

He was going to continue outperforming them anyhow.

He rose above and kept pursuing excellence.

Pica became a rodeo legend performing for audiences all over the world, from Mexico to England.

He even became a movie star with his appearance in the 1921 silent film The Bulldog.

Pickett's story is a necessary reminder for us all.

Although many of our stories have been erased from history books by white supremacy,

we've never needed their permission to be great.

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