Frontier ‘lawlessness’ was mostly white-on-white. Myth: Indian/Black criminality // Record: 7 white of every 11 convictions. Crime tales powered federal muscle & gallows theater, shifting blame from the dominant. The noose said one thing; the docket another. #BlackGun #Burton
Historical man // Mythic aura (true deeds magnified by frontier storytelling).
The stories teach a model of Black authority that is protective, restrained, and fearless—a direct rebuttal to both racist caricature and state brutality. #BlackGun #SilverStar
Fame is a white filter; memory leaks through.
Elders kept the names textbooks dropped—Bass Reeves.
“Earp wasn’t a patch on his pants leg.”
Burton follows the whisper to the record; the record agrees.
The West wasn’t just whitewashed—it was white-written.
#BlackGun #BassReeves #Historiography
Not “a Black marshal.” John Garrett—killed by the Rufus Buck Gang in Okmulgee. Put the name back. Memory is justice’s first witness. #BlackGun #HistoryReceipts www.okhistory.org/publications...
