The Other Cowboys Again

My idea was to make something wild west themed (duh, it involved cowboys). With that in mind, I would probably choose a rather cliche, old, wild west themed song as well as visuals. I will also try to recover some visuals involving black cowboys even though I know that they are going to be much harder to find, especially in older stuff. For the plot, my initial idea is that I would tell the classic tale of a cowboy, herding cattle, riding and exploring the wild west, and participating in rodeo competitions, showing off his exceptional cowboy skills. Then, once it is all over, I would reveal that despite how it is difficult for people to believe, this typical cowboy has an atypical skin color: he is black. For the style, I will use a light theme when initially talking about the cowboy and then when it is revealed that the cowboy is black, the color scheme will change. I would also include some images of open and systematic racism against blacks in the United States, and more specifically if I can find anything about open discrimmination against the black cowboys. From what I have researched, black cowboys have been around for a very long time and there are also legendary black cowboys the same there are white ones (Nat Love and John Ware are good examples). My target audience would be the general public, considering how these days the racial justice protests are very widespread and pretty much everyone is affected by it or at least knows about it. More importantly, though, it would be for people who know less about the importance of black in American history. Teaching those people that even something as “American” (mostly implying white American) the blacks had a presence in. Learning about mutual history helps reduce prejudice against others and what topic better than cowboys? Not only are they interesting and embody the free-spirited Americanism, but they also involve several races that have been greatly underrepresented in the area. About a quarter of cowboys were black and another third were Mexican, meaning white cowboys were not even the majority but unfortunately, they are the only ones seen in popular media such as Hollywood films and my example, the Highwayman music video. In recent times there has been slightly more diversity in Western Hollywood movies but it is not exactly helpful because people assume it is just part of the agenda to increase diversity (similar to how there was a black nobleman in the Hamlet movie of ‘96, which given the historical context does not make sense) and not a true historical portrayal; that is why it is even more important to discuss the real history because as more time passes, it becomes easier to accept the lies that the media has fed people as facts and forget what really happened in the history of the United States. I am just hoping to find enough visuals with black cowboys to make my animation because they are mostly unheard of.