THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 9, 1996 TAG: 9610090031
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVE ADDIS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 101 lines
FREDDI E. MOODY had a cultural epiphany about 10 years ago in the strangest of places - at a rodeo in Washington, D.C.
That's a town where if somebody says ``bull-wrestling,'' you assume they're talking about a congressional debate.
Moody was talked into attending the Bill Pickett Invitational Black Rodeo, a traveling troupe named for a famous black cowboy of the 1800s.
``First thing was, I was shocked,'' she said. ``A black rodeo? Black cowboys? I mean, I grew up with Dale Evans and Roy Rogers and all that. I didn't even know black people rode horses.
``So there I was at my first rodeo, and I was so impressed to see somebody out there riding on that 1,000-pound animal, doing the things they do. It was so phenomenal.
``My kids loved it, my grandmother loved it. There were five generations of us sitting out there, just in awe of this event.''
She thought it would be a natural, she said, for the '96 Festival of Pride, which is being produced this weekend by the African American Cultural Council of Virginia Beach, a year-old organization dedicated to the celebration of black heritage in Virginia Beach.
The weekend's events also will include a Unity Breakfast honoring African-Americans in the military, and a high-voltage gospel music festival at the Oceanfront, featuring national recording artists and a slate of local talent.
``I thought of the rodeo for here,'' Moody said, ``because I knew a lot of people were like I was 10 years ago. I found that me, my kids, my grandkids did not know about black cowboys.
``I started to research a lot of things blacks did in the making of the Old West, the contributions they made.
``Steer wrestling, for example, that was started by Bill Pickett.'' The legendary cowboy, she said, was born in Texas between 1860 and 1870, the exact date lost to the poor record-keeping of that time and place, especially for blacks.
``In those days, the dogs kept the steers in line, and they did that by biting the steers on the lips. He learned to do that himself, and that's how he became famous, he'd wrestle a steer down by biting it on its lips,'' Moody said. ``There's a guy in Texas who actually still does that.''
The trick earned Pickett the nickname ``the bulldogger,'' and the rodeo nickname for steer-wrestling - bulldogging - stems from Pickett's feats.
Even the term ``cowboy,'' Moody said, came from the days when black men were called ``boy.''
``So the ones working the cattle, they called them `cowboys,' '' she said, ``and eventually that term was just derived for everybody else.''
Much of the Pickett legend is still hazy. ``Bill went around to different places,'' Moody said, ``farming himself out to work on various ranches and farms, to work with the animals.''
He is said to have worked for a time with Frank and Jesse James, and he was a marquee draw at rodeos and Wild West shows across the country. He died in 1932, was later inducted into the Cowboy Hall of Fame and was honored with a U.S. Postal Service stamp in 1994.
Even that honor had a murky outcome when it was revealed that the picture on the stamp was of Bill Pickett's cousin and not the legendary cowboy. The stamp was recalled and a corrected one was issued, but about 150,000 of the originals made their way to the public. They now sell for $150 to $175 apiece, said Larry Robbins, of Candl Coins & Stamps in Virginia Beach.
One of the reasons for bringing a black rodeo to the city, Moody said, is to fill in the sort of gaps in black history that surround Pickett's legend.
``We're approaching this not as an entertainment piece but as an educational piece,'' she said. ``The goal is for cultural awareness, to educate the community.
``It's like a teacher's aide said to me, that she was trying to do research to justify bringing the kids to the rodeo, and she said, `I just couldn't find anything.'
``And I told her, `That's your justification right there, that people don't know that there's a whole black history out there that's lost, to tell people, both black and white, that this is a part of history that they don't know, because it has been lost.''
This first Festival of Pride weekend grew from a half-day gospel festival held last year, Moody said, adding, ``More and more people wanted to participate, and then we got involved with the Fleet Week activities, and it just mushroomed.''
Further, she said, the city's black community realized that while Norfolk and Portsmouth had annual festivals dedicated to black culture, Virginia Beach did not.
``We really thought it was time for a healing,'' she said, ``for everybody to forget about those problems of the past, of Greek days and Labor Days and such. Especially for the young people - they look forward, not back, and we want them aware of these positive aspects of black culture.'' ILLUSTRATION: The rodeo is named for Bill Pickett, a famous black
cowboy of the 1800s.
Graphic
CELEBRATE BLACK HERITAGE
[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]
Photo
STEVE EARLEY/The Virginian-Pilot
Freddi E. Moody, of the African American Cultural Council, and C.
Paulette Braithwaite, of Virginia Beach's Visitor Development
department, look over the rodeo site at Princess Anne Park. by CNB