Florida's Black Cowboys

Ivory Lucky's got stories to tell. Like how he and his daddy used to haul cattle across State Road 40 from Ocala to the packinghouse in Daytona Beach. Or how he'd pen and tag cows at the livestock market in the 1950s. They called him "As Is," he said, when he started buying blind and maimed cows in high school for $1 apiece because that was all he could afford. "I always wanted me some cattle," said Lucky, now 61. And he remembers not being able to eat at the livestock market diner because of the color of his skin. But on the open range, things were different. "Long years ago, those cattlemen rolled together," Lucky said. These days, the rancher rounds up his 175 cattle with dogs and a four-wheeler at his farm in rural Blitchton, about 20 minutes west of Ocala. It's stories like these of Florida's black cattlemen and ranchers that the Florida Agricultural Museum in Palm Coast is trying to preserve. The museum recently launched a new permanent exhibit -- Florida's Black Cowboys: Past and Present -- tracing the centuries-long history of African-Americans in the cattle industry...read more