Before 'Cowboy Carter,' Ron Tarver spent 30 years photographing Black cowboys

Before Beyoncé released "Cowboy Carter," award-winning photographer and educator Ron Tarver made it his mission to correct the American cowboy narrative and highlight Black cowboys. Even so, he says the superstar's impact is profound.

The Swarthmore College art professor spent the last three decades photographing Black cowboys around the U.S. Tarver first started the project in Pennsylvania while on assignment for the Philadelphia Inquirer, and his work expanded after National Geographic gave him a grant to photograph cowboys across the country.

Now Tarver says it has become his mission to showcase this particular community that he says has always existed but hasn't always been recognized.

"I grew up in Oklahoma and grew up sort of in this culture," he says. "I mean, I have family that have ranches and I spent my time during the summer working on ranches and hauling hay and doing all the other things you do in a small agricultural town."

His upcoming book titled "The Long Ride Home: Black Cowboys in America" along with corresponding exhibitions aim to educate the public about Black cowboys and correct narratives surrounding American cowboys by highlighting a culture that has existed since the start of his work and still today.

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Tarver says the lack of knowledge around Black cowboys created challenges for him when he first began this project.

"As it as I went on, I was really happy with the images but then I started seeing all this pushback," he says. "I tried to publish this book like 25 years ago. And I remember getting responses from acquisition editors saying there's no such thing as Black cowboys. And it was just really disheartening."

While his work began way before Beyoncé released "Cowboy Carter," Tarver appreciates how she's fueled the conversation.

"She she grew up in that — in the Houston area," he says. "So, she's speaking from experience and also from that musical knowledge of who was out there."

As fans know, the megastar released her highly acclaimed album on March 29 and has already made history and broken multiple records. And Beyoncé has undoubtedly been a huge catalyst for the recent spotlight on Black country artists and the genre's roots.

"I really have to give a shout out to Beyoncé's album for calling out some of the country Western singers that were Black that never got recognized," Tarver says. "I have to say, it's a little baffling to me that with all this coverage out there — I don't know if people are just blind to it or they don't want to acknowledge it — but I still have people say this is the first they ever heard of it."

He is recognizes the larger implications of his work and artists like Beyoncé bringing awareness to his subject.

"That conversation just continues to grow. And it continues to recognize people that came before all of us that were pushing this idea of Black Western heritage, that didn't get recognized back in the '60s and '50s," Tarver says. "I see us all as just one gigantic mouthpiece for the Black heritage."

Follow Caché McClay, the USA TODAY Network's Beyoncé Knowles-Carter reporter, on Instagram, TikTok and X as @cachemcclay.