Bill Pickett

Bill Pickett invented bulldogging, a rodeo technique in which a cowhand ropes a steer, then wrestles it to the ground. Pickett was born in Texas and was of African and Native American descent. He left grammar school to become a cowhand. In 1905, he joined the 101 Ranch Wild West Show, and began touring. Racism in the rodeo circuit limited the opportunities available to him, but he nevertheless became famous. In 1923, he starred in one of filmmaker Richard Norman’s first silent films, entirely about “the bulldogger” himself. The film gained wide popularity among both white audiences and audiences of color, with President Theodore Roosevelt even favorably commenting on it. Norman, who was white, made “race films,” a genre marketed toward Black audiences and featuring Black actors in less-stereotypical roles than mainstream Hollywood.