Educating Denver’s youth Paul Stewart works with children at the Black American West Museum. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN COLORADO[/caption]

According to the Black American West Museum & Heritage Center in Denver, one out of three cowboys were African American. Black cowboys once owned Colorado homesteads and Denver ranches, influencing the African American ethnicity in Denver.

Dearfield, Colorado, is an example of a self-sufficient all-Black town formed during the pioneer days. It was founded in 1910 by Oliver T. Jackson and was essential in African American farming on the Great Plains outside of Denver, between Greeley and Fort Morgan. The town thrived for a while, and it was one of the first places to prove that African Americans helped shape Colorado.

One of Colorado’s famous African Americans was a gentleman named Paul Stewart, who moved to and worked as a barber in Denver in the 1960s. No, Stewart wasn’t a cowboy. However, one day while sightseeing, he stumbled upon a black man wearing boots, chaps, a gun belt, spurs, and a cowboy hat.

Skeptical about the stranger’s claim that he was a cowboy, Stewart questioned his authenticity. Later, Stewart learned that the black man was a well-known rancher and one of many typical black cowboys in Colorado.

While earning a living as a barber, Stewart would ask his clients about pioneer stories or people they have heard of, secretly recording their conversations. Through these intimate interviews, Stewart received artifacts of historical and cultural interests, and by the 1970s, he stored these items in Denver’s Clayton College campus.

A decade later, the artifacts were moved to the home of Colorado’s first African American female physician, Dr. Justina L. Ford, which would become the Black American West Museum and Heritage Center. The museum is now home to an array of larger-than-life storytelling of early African Americans in the west.

Stewart was born in Clinton, Iowa. He served in the United States Navy after graduating high school. While attending Roosevelt University, Stewart worked at the local post office. Sadly, he dropped out to help his brother with tuition and subsequently earned a license from Moler Barber College. Stewart passed away in Aurora, Colorado, in 2015.

To learn more about the Black American West Museum & Heritage Center, visit https://www.bawmhc.org/. To learn more about Dearfield, Colorado, visit https://www.nps. gov/places/dearfield-colorado.htm. To learn more about Paul Stewart, visit https://history.denverlibrary.org/news/paul-stewart-chroniclerwestern black-cowboy.