Sunday, March 13, 2016
Wednesday, March 9, 2016
Bass Reeves: The Real Lone Ranger
Bass Reeves: The Real Lone Ranger
Reeves was born into slavery in 1838 in Crawford County, Arkansas. Reeves was named after his grandfather, Basse Washington. Bass Reeves and his family were slaves of Arkansas state legislator William Steele Reeves. When Bass Reeves was eight (about 1846), William Reeves moved to Grayson County, Texas, near Sherman in the Peters Colony. Bass Reeves may have served William Steel Reeves son, Colonel George R. Reeves who was a legislator in Texas until the time of his death from rabies in 1882. George Reeves was the Speaker of the House. During the American Civil War, Bass parted company with George Reeves, perhaps "because Bass beat up George after a dispute in a card game." Bass Reeves fled north into the Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) and lived with the Cherokee, Seminole, and Creek Indians until he was freed by the thirteenth amendment, which abolished slavery in 1865.
Later Reeves moved to Arkansas and farmed near Van Buren. He married Nellie Jennie from Texas, with whom he had eleven children.
Career
Reeves and his family farmed until 1875, when Isaac Parker was appointed federal judge for the Indian Territory. Parker appointed James F. Fagan as U.S. Marshal, directing him to hire 200 deputy U.S. Marshals. Fagan had heard about Reeves, who knew the Indian Territory and could speak several Indian languages. He recruited him as one of his deputies and Reeves was the first black Deputy, West of the Mississippi River.[2][5] Reeves was initially assigned as a Deputy U.S. Marshal for the Western District of Arkansas, which also had responsibility for the Indian Territory.[6] Reeves served in that district until 1893, when he transferred to the Eastern District of Texas in Paris, Texas for a short while, then in 1897 he was transferred to the Muskogee Federal Court.
Reeves worked for thirty-two years as a Federal peace officer in the Indian Territory. He was one of Judge Parker's most valued deputies. Reeves brought in some of the most dangerous criminals of the time, but was never wounded, despite having his hat and belt shot off on separate occasions.[2] Once he had to arrest his own son for murder.
In addition to being a marksman with a rifle and pistol, Reeves, during his long career, developed superior detective skills. When he retired in 1907, Reeves claimed to have arrested over 3,000 felons. He is said to have shot and killed fourteen outlaws to defend his own life.
One of his sons, Bennie Reeves, was charged with the murder of his wife. Marshal Reeves was disturbed and shaken by the incident but demanded to accept the responsibility of bringing Bennie to justice. Bennie was eventually tracked and captured, tried and convicted. He served his time in Ft. Leavenworth in Kansas before being released and living the rest of his life as a responsible and model citizen.
When Oklahoma became a state in 1907, Reeves, then 68, became an officer of the Muskogee, Oklahoma police department. He served for two years before he became ill and had to retire.
He was himself once charged with murdering a posse cook. At his trial before Judge Parker, Reeves was represented by former United States Attorney W.H.H. Clayton, who had been his colleague and friend. Reeves was acquitted.
Death
Reeves' health began to fail, and he died of Bright's disease (nephritis) in 1910. He was an uncle of Paul L. Brady, the first black man appointed an Federal Administrative Law Judge (in 1972).
Legacy
In 2007, the U.S. Route 62 bridge crossing the Arkansas River between Muskogee and Fort Gibson, Oklahoma was named the Bass Reeves Memorial Bridge in his honor. On May 16, 2012, a bronze statue of Reeves by sculptor Harold Holden, of Enid, Oklahoma, was cast at a foundry in Norman, Oklahoma. It was then moved to its permanent location at Pendergraft Park in Fort Smith, Arkansas.
In popular culture Film
Bass Reeves, a fictionalized film of his life and career, was released by Ponderous Productions of San Antonio in 2010.
It is believed by some that Bass Reeves was the inspiration for The Lone Ranger radio and television series, even though he was never a Texas Ranger and spent little time in Texas.
Morgan Freeman has expressed interest in playing Reeves in a motion picture about his life.
The only scholarly research book on the life of Bass Reeves was written by historian Art T. Burton, the book is titled Black Gun, Silver Star: The Life and Legend of Frontier Marshal Bass Reeves, which was published in 2006. The book is currently available also as an audio book. Reeves' story has been presented to kids. Vaunda Micheaux Nelson's book, Bad News for Outlaws: The Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves, Deputy U.S. Marshal, won the 2010 Coretta Scott King Award for best author.
Illustrator and historian Joel Christian Gill published a graphic novel in 2014 called Tales of the Talented Tenth, Volume 1, which featured the story of Bass Reeves.
Authors Ken Farmer and Buck Stienke have penned four novels based on and inspired by the exploits of Bass Reeves, The Nations, Haunted Falls (winner of the Laramie Award for best action western, 2013), Hell Hole, and Across the Red.
Author Elizabeth Bear depicted Bass Reeves in her 2015 wild-west/Steampunk novel Karen Memory.
Reeves 'guest-stars' in the ninth volume of the Atomic Robo comic book series, "Atomic Robo and the Knights of the Golden Circle." The story, which takes place in 1884, features Robo, Reeves, and Doc Holliday teaming up to fight a mad scientist.
Television
Reeves figures prominently in an episode of How It's Made, in which a Bass Reeves limited edition collectors' figurine is shown in various stages of the production process. The story of Bass Reeves, portrayed by Jaleel White, is told on an episode of Drunk History by Mark Gagliardi.
"Bass Reeves: The Real Lone Ranger" is the title and subject of "Legends and Lies: The Real West" Season 1, Episode 9 (2015).
"Bass Reeves - The Real Lone Ranger" is also the title and subject of "Gunslingers" Season 2, Episode 4 (2015). Reeves is portrayed by Joseph Callender.
It has been suggested that Reeves was an inspiration for the fictional character The Lone Ranger. The origin of this may have been a 2008 biography in which the author stated "that Bass Reeves is the closest real person to resemble the fictional Lone Ranger." However, Reeves was never a Texas Ranger, and records of the creation of The Lone Ranger show no evidence of this.
Queen Philippa - England's first black queen
http://www.100greatblackbritons.com/bios/queen_phillipa.html
England's first black queen, mother of the black prince
Philippa was the daughter of William of Hainault, a lord in part of what is now Belgium. When she was nine the King of England, Edward II, decided that he would marry his son, the future Edward III, to her, and sent one of his bishops, a Bishop Stapeldon, to look at her. He described her thus:
"The lady whom we saw has not uncomely hair, betwixt blue-black and brown. Her head is cleaned shaped; her forehead high and broad, and standing somewhat forward. Her face narrows between the eyes, and the lower part of her face is still more narrow and slender than the forehead. Her eyes are blackish brown and deep. Her nose is fairly smooth and even, save that is somewhat broad at the tip and flattened, yet it is no snub nose. Her nostrils are also broad, her mouth fairly wide. Her lips somewhat full and especially the lower lip…all her limbs are well set and unmaimed, and nought is amiss so far as a man may see. Moreover, she is brown of skin all over, and much like her father, and in all things she is pleasant enough, as it seems to us."
Four years later Prince Edward went to visit his bride-to-be and her family, and fell in live with her. She was betrothed to him and in 1327, when she was only 14, she arrived in England. The next year, when she was 15, they married and were crowned King and Queen in 1330 when she was heavily pregnant with her first child and only 17.
This first child was called Edward, like his father, but is better known as the Black Prince. Many say that he was called this because of the colour of his armour, but there are records that show that he was called 'black' when he was very small. The French called him 'Le Noir'.
Philippa was a remarkable woman. She was very wise and was known and loved by the English for her kindliness and restraint. She would travel with her husband on his campaigns and take her children as well. When the King was abroad she ruled in his absence. Queen's College in Oxford University was founded under her direction by her chaplain, Robert de Eglesfield in 1341 when she was 28. She brought many artists and scholars from Hainault who contributed to English culture.
When she died, Edward never really recovered, and she was much mourned by him and the country. King Edward had a beautiful sculpture made for her tomb which you can see today at Westminster Abbey.
Sourced from the Black Cultural Archives
"The lady whom we saw has not uncomely hair, betwixt blue-black and brown. Her head is cleaned shaped; her forehead high and broad, and standing somewhat forward. Her face narrows between the eyes, and the lower part of her face is still more narrow and slender than the forehead. Her eyes are blackish brown and deep. Her nose is fairly smooth and even, save that is somewhat broad at the tip and flattened, yet it is no snub nose. Her nostrils are also broad, her mouth fairly wide. Her lips somewhat full and especially the lower lip…all her limbs are well set and unmaimed, and nought is amiss so far as a man may see. Moreover, she is brown of skin all over, and much like her father, and in all things she is pleasant enough, as it seems to us."
Four years later Prince Edward went to visit his bride-to-be and her family, and fell in live with her. She was betrothed to him and in 1327, when she was only 14, she arrived in England. The next year, when she was 15, they married and were crowned King and Queen in 1330 when she was heavily pregnant with her first child and only 17.
This first child was called Edward, like his father, but is better known as the Black Prince. Many say that he was called this because of the colour of his armour, but there are records that show that he was called 'black' when he was very small. The French called him 'Le Noir'.
Philippa was a remarkable woman. She was very wise and was known and loved by the English for her kindliness and restraint. She would travel with her husband on his campaigns and take her children as well. When the King was abroad she ruled in his absence. Queen's College in Oxford University was founded under her direction by her chaplain, Robert de Eglesfield in 1341 when she was 28. She brought many artists and scholars from Hainault who contributed to English culture.
When she died, Edward never really recovered, and she was much mourned by him and the country. King Edward had a beautiful sculpture made for her tomb which you can see today at Westminster Abbey.
Sourced from the Black Cultural Archives
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