No genre romanticizes America’s manifest destiny mythos more than the western. For decades, the construct featured white men conquering the frontier from Native Americans and law enforcement. In fact, no image in the American lexicon espouses freedom more than the cowboy, and from the 1860s through the 1880s, Black people accounted for 25% of cowboys. But Black folks — other than having films like “Buffalo Soldiers,” “Buck And The Preacher,” and “Bull” — have mostly been erased from the cinematic and American history of the west. Because for a race that’s been dehumanized more often than not, the totemic cowboy ran counter to the seizure of Black freedom instituted by white people. In short, a Black person on a horse is an inherent statement against oppression.