Montana Historical Society

Big Sky ~ Big History

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Digital Issue | Summer 2020

African Americans in Montana and the West

Black history matters. This special digital issue of Montana The Magazine of Western History focuses on African American history in Montana and the diversity of Black experiences in the West. We draw attention to this history with a selection of articles from the past twenty-five years of Montana The Magazine of Western History, excerpts from two MHS Press books, and a new essay from Herbert Ruffin II on the state of the field.

Introduction, from the Editors

Michael Scott Van Wagenen, “Remembering Yellowstone National Park's First African American Explorers,” Summer 2020

Ellen Baumler, “Celebrating Sarah Gammon Bickford,” Beyond Schoolmarms and Madams

John Langellier, “Buffalo Soldiers in Big Sky Country, 1888–1898,” Autumn 2017

Ellen Baumler, “Two Legendary African American Homesteaders,” Beyond Schoolmarms and Madams

Anthony Wood, “After the West Was Won: How African American Buffalo Soldiers Invigorated the Helena Community in Early Twentieth Century Montana,” Autumn 2016

Ellen Baumler, “Contributions of a Mother and Daughter,” Beyond Schoolmarms and Madams

Annie Hanshew, “‘Lifting as We Climb’: The Activism of the Montana Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs,” Beyond Schoolmarms and Madams

Annie Hanshew, Emma Louise Riley Smith, Border to Border

Laura Ferguson, “Born to Be Published: Ivan Doig and Taylor Gordon,” Autumn 2018

Marcella Sherfy Walter, “Rose Gordon: Daughter of a Slave and Small-Town Activist,” Beyond Schoolmarms and Madams

Annie Hanshew, “Alma Smith Jacobs: Beloved Librarian, Tireless Activist,” Beyond Schoolmarms and Madams

Ken Robison, “Breaking Racial Barriers: ‘Everyone’s Welcome at the Ozark Club,’ Great Falls, Montana’s African American Night Club,” Summer 2012

Kate Hampton, “Montana’s African American Heritage Resources Project,” Summer 2020 (digital issue)

Quintard Taylor, “From Esteban to Rodney King: Five Centuries of African American History in the West,” Winter 1996

Herbert Ruffin II, “African Americans in Western Historiography Since 2000,” Summer 2020 (digital issue)