cover image In Search of the Racial Frontier: African Americans in the American West, 1528-1990

In Search of the Racial Frontier: African Americans in the American West, 1528-1990

Quintard Taylor. W. W. Norton & Company, $29.95 (415pp) ISBN 978-0-393-04105-7

In an absorbing chronicle more remarkable for its wealth of interesting facts and figures than for any overarching historical thesis, Taylor, a University of Oregon history professor, ably documents the history of African Americans in the American West. Taylor begins in the early 16th century, when the first Spanish-speaking black slaves of the conquistadors arrived in Texas and New Mexico, and carries his study through the civil rights era to the present. Dispelling the lingering stereotype of rugged, solitary black cowboys, Taylor shows that black Westerners were predominantly urban workers--waiters cooks, doctors, lawyers, restaurant and barbershop owners, schoolteachers, newspaper editors--who built community institutions (fraternal organizations, women's clubs) while striving to integrate themselves into the larger society. Among the many facts that will surprise readers is this: of the original 46 settlers who founded Los Angeles in 1781, 26 were black or biracial. Marshaling a wealth of primary source material, Taylor documents black Westerners' participation in all aspects of life in the American West and, in the process, reclaims an important dimension of African American history. Photos, maps. (Feb.)