Research Paper on:
AFRICAN AMERICAN COWBOYS AND EAST TEXAS: DISCRIMINATION AND PREJUDICE - RESEARCH PROPOSAL

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
fighter Martin Luther King Jr. Every time we turn around, it seems as more African American heroes end up in the mainstream media as well - just recently, the movie  "Red Tails" was released, detailing the extraordinarily feats of the Tuskegee Airmen during World War II. Much of Black history, however, focuses on  the heroic (such as the Tuskegee Airmen) and the downtrodden (slavery). What is missing in our understanding of Black history is the in-between, in other words, the African American men  and women who helped build the United States, but did it without fanfare, acknowledgement or even without being downtrodden. A study of the  American cowboy is one that tells us how the frontier was won. Within that group of American cowboys is the subset of Black, or African American, cowboys. According to the  book "The Negro Cowboys," there existed at least 5,000 African American cowhands during the late 1800s (Hardaway). Another study came out a few years later from the University of Oregon,  which argued that approximately 25 percent - close to 9,000 cowboys - were Black (Hardaway). With the American cowboy being such an important  part of U.S. history, it makes sense to delve somewhat deeper; to focus on the Black cowboy as well. An understanding of how the African American cowboys shaped our country  - and how/if they did so in the face of discrimination that seemed to be the norm at the time - gives us a good overview of family relationships among  frontier African Americans, not to mention the relationships inherent between Black and White cowhands. Such research can help us better understand the cultural roots of todays African Americans, especially those