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OKLAHOMA CAPITOL --The crowd gasped as Bill Pickett leapt from his horse onto the running steer. Pickett wrapped his arms around the 600-pound beast and sunk his teeth into its lower lip as he wrestled it to the ground.
The crowd cheered as Pickett stood up and dusted himself off, never realizing that nearly 70 years later he would be regarded as a rodeo pioneer and the most famous black cowboy in history.
Western artist Neal Freeman recently depicted the spirit of this legendary black Oklahoman in an oil painting, titled "In Pursuit of the Dream." The work was commissioned to commemorate the Oklahoma Black Heritage Celebration 2000.
Oklahoma Black Heritage Celebration will be held at 11:30 a.m. in the Avery Chapel AME Church, located at the corner of N.E. 14th and Kelham in Oklahoma City.
Scheduled to appear are the Lucent Technology Praise Singers, the Langston University Choir, the Ebony Society Stomp Team from Westmoore High School, the Corpus Christi Liturgical Dance Troupe, Norma Goff, Sandra Rogers, Kerry Wayne and Gary Williams. The keynote speaker will be Kia Malone, reporter, from television station KWTV9.
Langston University historian, writer and radio host Currie Ballard will be presented with the first ever Lifetime Achievement Award. The Courage Award will be given to Eugene Daniels, an 18-year veteran of the Oklahoma Department of Human Services, for his tireless and selfless work with Oklahoma’s homeless, and his wife Marvina Daniels, an 18-year veteran of OKDHS, who supported her husband through his recent illness.
Admission is free and open to the public, however donations will be accepted to help continue this annual event. Leo’s Bar-B-Q will provide food. T-shirts will be available for $8; buttons and postcards featuring Freeman’s painting of Pickett are $2. There will also be 100 numbered and signed limited edition prints of Freeman’s painting available for $100.
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