The Black Wall Street Times
Casey McLerran
The Gilcrease Museum, located at 1400 N Gilcrease Museum Rd, is hosting an exhibition of The Chisholm Kid: Lone Fighter for Justice for All curated by the Museum of UnCut Funk. This exhibition includes comic strips from the museum’s archives, the estate of the publisher, and the University of Michigan Special Collections Library.
In the 1950’s America’s hero was the cowboy of the wild west. While estimates reflect that 25 percent of all cowboys were African Americans historically, t.v. and comic book cowboys were depicted as overwhelmingly white. This made the Chisholm Kid a radical departure as a weekly newspaper comic strip featuring a black cowboy fighting for justice for all in the wild west.
The narrative of the harrowing excitement taking place in the wild west and Indian Territory began in the latter part of the 1800’s as a advertising tool encouraging population of the continent west of the Mississippi through action packed stories of the lawless expanse land and opportunity waiting for any America willing to tame it.