Cowboys of Color: Mollie Taylor-Stevenson, Jr. on Living Your Best Life with Genma Holmes

Remember growing wanting to be a cowboy or cowgirl? The old western movies captured all of our imaginations. But rarely did we see cowboys who reflected the diversity of the west and our country.

On Saturday, July 19, 2014, join us as we continue to discuss Cowboys of Color; their history, heritage, and culture on Living Your Best Life Radio. We will be joined by National Multicultural Western Heritage Hall of Fame Inductee, Mollie Taylor-Stevenson, Jr., founder of the American Cowboy Museum located in the Houston, Texas area. Mollie, Jr. will share with us her rich heritage and life as an American Cowgirl.

Mollie, Jr.'s family ranch is 150 year working ranch. Listen to Mollie, Jr. share about her great-grandmother, a former slave, who Mollie, Jr. has a copy of her slave papers. Mollie, Jr. parents were HBCU educated who became entrepreneurial ranchers. Hear her share about her mother, Fisk University grad, and her father, a Tuskegee graduate, and how they started the first Black owned airport and aviation school in the country, Sky Ranch, on their land.

Mollie, Jr. will also discuss keeping your family land, farm work ethnic, educating children about the west, and why it is important to know your country and family's history. This lively interview will be entertaining and educational as you learn more about our country's western heritage.

 Living Your Best Life Radio, radio that empowers, inspires, and motivates you to live your BEST life, can be heard on 760 AM in the Middle-Tennessee Region, Tune In, military bases, and streamed live on U-Stream.TV from 9-10AM CST. This show will also air on WTST, a member of the HBCU radio network (XM 142).

Follow the #cowboysofcolor hash tag on Facebook and Twitter.


 National Multicultural Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony and Banquet

More About Mollie Taylor-Stevenson, Jr. 

Mollie's parents believed that education was very important, they not only educated their own children, but countless others with food, books, tuition payments and entire college educations. Mollie, Jr., worked as a professional model in Houston, Kansas City and New York, but she was drawn back home where she worked side by side with her mother to preserve their legacy. She established the American Cowboy Museum, a 501(c)(3) organization in 1987. It honors the contributions to Western culture of African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, and women.

Mollie Jr. is a 1963 graduate of Houston's Jack Yates High School and attended Texas Southern University as a business major from 1963-1967. For 15 years, Stevenson worked as a professional model. The busy rancher and museum director finds time to volunteer for the black trail riding and rodeo associations, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo and the Black Landowners Association. She has appeared in numerous radio, television and newspaper interviews, and has been featured as a woman in a nontraditional occupation in such magazines as Texas Highways, Ebony, and Essence.

Mollie, Jr. is also a journalist and an active volunteer with the Sugar Shack Trailride and various other rodeo trailride associations. Mollie has been honored by numerous schools as a motivational speaker and event coordinator. She is also a charter member of the Speakers and Black Go Texan Committee of the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo, the Professional Black Cowboy & Cowgirl Association, the Landowners of Texas, and her favorite, the Diamond L Riding & Roping Club.

To acquaint a new generation with this rich history, Mollie offers school tours, leather crafts for visiting children, lectures, a traveling exhibit with a quilt display, horseback riding, a mobile petting zoo, and living history presentations. She also encourages young people to consider careers in agribusiness and land ownership and sponsors FFA and 4-H students.

Mollie and her mother are the first living African-Americans inducted in The National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in Fort Worth. 

Photos: Submitted by Mollie Taylor-Stevenson, Jr.

Cowboys of Color: Harold Cash and Vincent Jacobs on Living Your Best Life Radio with Genma Holmes

Remember growing wanting to be a cowboy or cowgirl? The old western movies captured all of our imaginations. But rarely did we see cowboys who reflected the diversity of the west and our country.

On Saturday, July 12, 2014, listen to men who careers have been in the rodeo, true American Cowboys of Color. Tune in to hear from legendary heroes, Harold Cash and Vincent Jacobs. Listen to them share how they broke racial barriers to tour the rodeo circuit and how they are making sure the complete story of the American Cowboy is told accurately.

Harold Cash who was inducted into the Rodeo Hall of Fame in 2010 credits his education from Prairie View  A& M College to him being a part of the Rodeo. Listen to him share highlights from his stellar career as rodeo star, working in the oil business, and owning the first Black Country Western Club in Houston, Texas. Cash believes in bring others along on his journey. Hear him share how he honors others who have gone before him on the rodeo cirucut.

Vincent Jacobs, a 50-year resident of Barrett Station, is recognized as a legendary African-American Cowboys in Texas. At 15, he was introduced to competitive bull riding, and in 1970 he was one of the first black men to ride in the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. Hear him share what it was like to be a trailblazer among trailblazers. Jacobs will be inducted into the Rodeo Hall of Fame on in July.

Living Your Best Life Radio, radio that empowers, inspires, and motivates you to live your BEST life, can be heard on 760 AM in the Middle-Tennessee Region, Tune In, military bases, and streamed live on U-Stream.TV from 9-10AM CST. This show will also air on WTST, a member of the HBCU radio network (XM 142).

Follow the #cowboysofcolor hash tag on Facebook and Twitter.

More About the Rode Hall of Fame Mission

The National Multicultural Western Heritage Museum and Hall of Fame is dedicated to honoring and documenting the lives of men and women who have made exemplary contributions to Western Heritage, past and present.

More About Harold Cash

For years Harold was a spectator with his grandfather, however in 1967 hometown cowboy friends Elijah and Charlie Davis entered him into his first rodeo at the S.P. Picnic Ground. Thus his rodeo career began. Thereafter in 1969 Cash teamed up and traveled with his mentor, “The World Greatest” Willie Thomas, Sr. to cities and states such as Chicago, Denver, New York, Washing D.C. and Oklahoma participating in rodeos. Even though Cash rode bulls, he specialized in Bare Back Riding. He was an expert at riding the “Bad One’s” especially those that stock contractors thought no one could ride. One memorable ride was when Harold Cash rode a horse in Washington, D.C. known as the horse of the year named “Playboy” owned by the Thera Latting Rodeo Production of Robbins, Illinois. Cash won the All American Rodeo Association Champion Bare Back Buckle in1979 and 1981. Along with numerous trophies and Awards in his rodeo career, in 1995 Cash won the Old Time Rodeo Association Bare Back Buckle, which is when he retired from the arena.

In 1982, Cash became the Co-owner of the first Black Country Western Club in Houston, Texas with his friend Myrtis Dightman. In 1985, he became the sole owner of the “Tie Down Saloon” Country and Western Club in Texas City, Texas. In addition, some of Harold Cash’s community accomplishments are, Master Mason Grand Lodge 112, - Logos Bible Institute, Houston, Texas, - Ike Carden Rodeo Association - Over the Hill & Future Cowboy Rodeo Association, - Galveston County Fair & Rodeo Association - Houston Livestock show and Rodeo Black Professional Cowboy & Cowgirl Association – Texas House of Representatives Honored as an outstanding example of a Texas icon-A real cowboy –and the President of the All American Youth Rodeo Association.

More About Vincent Jacobs

Vincent Jacobs is an American cowboy who grew up in the 1940s. He challenges what is written as history with factual information about the American West and speaks often at schools and colleges about the accuracy of American History. He notes many movies about the "Wild West" are Hollywood versions of stories that omit the role of black cowboys in our Western culture. Jacobs states many stories were changed to make material for a number of films like The Lone Ranger which was said to be inspired by Bass Reeves, a former slave who had an illustrious career as a U.S. Marshall. Also, the film, The Searchers, is based on a novel by Alan Le May, which was inspired by legendary Brit Johnson, a famous black cowboy. In recent years, black characters appear more in films such as Wild West Posse, Unforgiven, and Django Unchained. But Hollywood has ignored the ethnic diversity of the cowboy in American West which is considered the birthplace of America where Americans made ​​a difference to people of European descent. The West is seen as a frontier where white people showed their courage but does not depict many people of color who had no rights under the U.S. Constitution were just as courageous and made many historical contributions to our society in spite of the circumstances that prohibited them from being considered citizens. Jacobs still fights for all Americans who have contributed so much to recognized and honored.

Jacobs has been recognized by many organizations and is honored to be nominated into the Rodeo Hall of Fame.

Join Living Your Best Life Radio at the Hall of Fame Rodeo

Living Your Best Life Radio is headed out west. Join us at the Hall Fame Rodeo, Sunday July 27, 2014.
Rodeo starts at 7:00pm. Doors open at 6:00pm. To purchase tickets got www.cowtowncoliseum.com

Cowboys of Color on Living Your Best Life with Genma Holmes

Update: Audio of Show can be found here.

Join Living Your Best Life with Genma Holmes as we profile organizations, leaders, and volunteers who lead by example. With extraordinary acts of kindness and charitable giving that help countless lives daily, these organizations, leaders, and volunteers embody "Be the change you want to see in the world."

Gloria and Jim Austin being presented with art for NMWHM

On Saturday, May 31, 2014, tune in to hear Jim Austin, the founder of the National Multicultural Western Heritage Museum. Mr. Austin, a former executive with American Express, will share historical perspectives of people and activities that built the unique culture of the American West. Often, historians have left out the contributions of Black and Hispanic Cowboys and Native American Indians. And Hollywood's version of the American Cowboy rarely includes diversity.

"Cowboys of Color" Rodeo

Mr. Austin will discuss American heroes like Bill Pickett who is famously known for "bulldogging", women of the "wild wild west" like Mary Fields, also known as “Stagecoach Mary”  and recent inductees into the Cowboys and Cowgirls Hall of Fame.

Ebony Horsewomen Equestrian and Agricultural Center

Mr. Austin will share the significance of the  Hall of Fame and the importance of highlighting the excellent examples of American heroes of the past, present, and future.  He will share stories about individual contributors to maintaining the history of American Western Culture like Art T. Burton, scholar and author of Black, Red, and Deadly, actress Pam Grier, and Patrica E. Kelly, founder of Ebony Horsewomen, Inc., who is teaching a younger generation to the benefits of an Equine Education that promotes science, technology, engineering, math and horsemanship.

This show promises to keep you laughing while engaging you with one nugget of knowledge after another. 

Living Your Best Life Radio, radio that empowers, inspires, and motivates you to live your BEST life. can be heard on 760 AM in the Middle-Tennessee Region, Tune In, military bases, and streamed live on U-Stream.TV from 9-10AM CST. This show will also air on WTST, a member of the HBCU radio network (XM 142).

More About Jim Austin

James N. "Jim" Austin, Jr. is the broker and owner of The Austin Company Commercial Real Estate, established in 1981. The Austin Company has served the Fort Worth-Dallas metro area with commercial real estate and property management services for over thirty-three years. Austin served as Commissioner on the Texas Real Estate Commission for eight years. Jim Austine is a 1976 graduate of Howard University where he received his BA in Business. As a realtor, his commitment to his community service garnered him national recognition from the National Association of Realtors® as a recipient of the coveted Realtor® Magazine’s Good Neighbor Award in 2003. The Good Neighbor Awards recognize REALTORS® who’ve made an extraordinary strides to improving the quality of life in their communities through volunteer efforts.

 Jim Austin Online (JAO) originated in the fall of 2008 with 200 friends signing up to receive a e-newsletter from Jim. Jim Austine Online now has a community of over nearly 20,000 members. In conjunction with the weekly newsletter, JAO offers benefits that are exclusively found on JAO website such as monthly Networking Business Luncheons with high profile individuals as host like gubernatorial candidates and other relevant business and political figures. JAO also offers tickets to various theatrical, music and sporting events held at event venues such as Nokia Theater and the Dallas Cowboys Stadium.

More About the National Multicultural Western Heritage Museum 

The mission of the National Multicultural Western Heritage Museum and Hall of Fame is to offer visitors a true and complete historical perspective of the people and activities that built the unique culture of the American West. The works of artists who have documented the people and events of the time through journals, photographs, and other historical items are part of this new collection.  These long overlooked materials tell, perhaps, for the first time the complete story.  The American West of today still operates on many of the principles and cultural relationships begun so long ago.

The National Multicultural Western Heritage Museum was started to acknowledge the contributions of Hispanic Americans, Native Americans, European Americans, and African Americans in the settlement of the Western American Frontier.

The National Multicultural Western Heritage Museum is currently located at 3400 Mount Vernon Ave in Forth Worth, Texas. There are several featured exhibits such as the Tuskegee Airmen and the Buffalo Soldiers .

Photo Credits: NMWHM, JOA, and Ebony Horsewomen, Inc.