Hardaway cited as expert for African American Cowboys for publications in ‘Smithsonian,’ ‘Pacific Standard’
Dr. Roger Hardaway, professor of history at Northwestern Oklahoma State University, is featured in two new online articles about African American cowboys. Hardaway, a historian with an emphasis on the American West, has been researching and writing about black cowboys for years. In these recent articles, Hardaway serves as a resource person for the authors. His comments are quoted in each essay.
The first article titled “The Lesser Known History of African American Cowboys” was published in February in the online edition of “Smithsonian,” the official organ of the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C. The author is Katie Nodjimbadem, a staff writer for the online version of the magazine. The second article is “How America’s Black Cowboy Population is Fighting Erasure,” written by free-lance writer Alissa Greenberg of California. This essay appeared in March in “Pacific Standard” magazine in both its hard copy and online versions. Each article is easily accessible by searching for “African American Cowboys” along with the author’s name.
Hardaway enjoyed the interview process and getting to know the authors.
“I was honored to be quoted in both of these significant publications,” Hardaway said. “I do not know either of the authors, and I had not heard of them before they reached out to me and asked to interview me. After I agreed, each of them called me and asked me several questions about working cowboys and rodeo stars. I am extremely happy that each of them found reference to my work on the internet and decided that I was knowledgeable enough about the topic to serve as someone who could speak authoritatively on it.”
Hardaway has published several articles and books on the African American experience in the American West. His article “Oklahoma’s African American Rodeo Performers” appeared in the summer 2011 edition of “Chronicles of Oklahoma,” the state’s primary history journal. It was recently reprinted in the book “Black Cowboys in the American West,” which was published by the University of Oklahoma Press. The book has just been chosen to receive an award as the best-edited collection of the past year by the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association.
Hardaway has been a member of the Northwestern faculty since 1990 and has taught U.S. history to more than 4,000 students at the university.
For more information on Hardaway’s work contact him at (580) 327-8520 or rdhardaway@nwosu.edu.