Remembering Black History: The Black West, pt. 1
Last year, I featured some of my favorite poets and poetry in honor of Black History Month. This year, I want to continue that with black men and women of the Old West. As I prepare to write my historical western romance, I am in awe of the many black men and women who were just influential in the Western Expansion--those who had built a life for themselves out in the west and Midwest, but who are sadly very rarely mentioned in the history books or Hollywood. So each week this month, in honor of the 1860's set western romance I'm working on (which will be part of a historical romance anthology with authors Alyssa Cole, Piper Hughley, and Kianna Alexander) I will be featuring some of the fascinating stories I've discovered during my research. This week I want to feature the top 5 "badass" black women of the Old West: 1. Cathay Williams aka "William Cathay" (1842-1892), born to a slave woman in Missouri, served as a Buffalo Solider during the Ci...