Gold buckles don't lie
Subtitle: the untold tale of Fred Whitfield
By: Fred Whitfeld with Terri Powers
Contributors: Powers, Terri author
Publisher: [publisher not identified]
Published: 2013
Place of publication: [United States]
Language: eng
Number of pages: 249
ISBN-13: 9780989404709
Subjects: Rodeo performers; Biography; African American rodeo performers
Description: Fred Whitfield is one of the greatest cowboys to ever compete in professional rodeo, but will go down in history as "the black one." When Fred joined the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association in 1989, African-Americans comprised a whopping 1% of its 10,000 members and only one other black man won one gold buckle before Fred won eight of them. Rodeo is a harsh mistress who will take you to the top of the mountain only to drop you off on your head, and she is historically lily white and rich. Fred Whitfield was neither white nor rich, but he stayed on top of her for a very long time. This made most of the people love him, but it made some hate him more than they already did and this bunch already hated him . . . a lot. The walls went up early and through twenty years of interviews, he never told the full story until now - and what a story it is. --cover