The Texas Black Invitational Rodeo returns to Fair Park Coliseum Saturday night for its 37th edition, carrying forward nearly four decades of competition while honoring the man who helped make the event a North Texas tradition.
This year’s rodeo pays tribute to the late Cleo Hearn, a National Rodeo Hall of Famer, founder of Cowboys of Color Rodeo and longtime advocate for telling a more complete history of the American West.
For Hearn’s oldest son, Harlan Hearn, continuing the rodeo is the most direct way the family can preserve his father’s life’s work.
“His vision is, one, we’re doing it this year — so you keep doing it,” Hearn said. “It was his life’s work. As an adult, this rodeo was his passion. Rodeo production was his passion, showing future generations.”
Harlan Hearn, managing partner of Hearn Rodeo Productions and Cowboys of Color Rodeo, said his father recognized that Black cowboys were largely missing from the Western stories many Americans saw on television and in movies.
Whether audiences were watching “Gunsmoke,” “Bonanza,” “Rawhide” or classic Western films, Hearn said, they rarely saw people of color represented on screen.
“Dad, being a cowboy — being a Black cowboy — wanted to introduce the Black cowboy, especially to the Black community in the Dallas-Fort Worth area,” Hearn said. “He saw the gap. We’re in a Black community, and not many people really knew about the depth of the Black cowboy in the American West.”
Cleo Hearn spent more than 50 years working to close that gap. Through rodeo competition, historical education and community outreach, he highlighted the Black, Hispanic and Native American men and women whose stories were often left out of traditional portrayals of Western expansion.
Harlan Hearn said his father believed that history mattered, particularly for young people growing up in cities who might associate athletic opportunity primarily with sports such as football, basketball or baseball.
“He felt that the community — that people — needed to know the truth,” Hearn said. “There were a lot more people involved. Basically, 25 percent of the cowboys in the Old West were Black. There were also Native American cowboys. There were also Hispanic American cowboys. It’s about telling the true story of the West.”
That story will unfold alongside a full night of rodeo action Saturday. The program includes ranch bronc riding, steer wrestling, tie-down roping, barrel racing and bull riding, along with the Pony Express relay race — traditionally one of the evening’s biggest crowd-pleasers.
Hearn said first-time visitors should expect a packed arena, intense competition and an experience that connects entertainment with history.
“You’re going to get a lot of rodeo action,” he said. “You’re going to get some history. You’re going to get some verbal history in there as well. The announcer is going to lay some information out there that a lot of people are not aware of.”
That combination reflects one of Cleo Hearn’s guiding principles.
“Dad used to say, ‘We’re going to educate you while we entertain you,’” Harlan Hearn said. “That’s what we do, and that’s what it’s all about. You’re going to get the entertainment value, but we’re also going to give you some education on Black cowboys and rodeo in general.”
The Texas Black Invitational Rodeo was the first rodeo Cleo Hearn produced locally year after year, and it became the longest-running event in the Cowboys of Color Rodeo organization. Except for interruptions surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, it has remained an annual showcase at Fair Park for nearly four decades.
The event has also been shaped by a longstanding partnership with the African American Museum, Dallas. Harlan Hearn said his father worked alongside the museum’s president emeritus, Dr. Harry Robinson Jr., for 36 years. Robinson retired last year but is expected to attend Saturday’s rodeo.
Hearn said the family now hopes to expand his father’s reach through social media and other digital platforms while staying faithful to the purpose behind the event.
“We’re taking what he had and where he left off, and we’re doing our best to make it better,” Hearn said. “We’re trying to get more involved in social media, the internet and things online to get the word out there — to expose more and more people to rodeo itself and the history of the Black cowboy.”
“It’s a continuation of what he’s been doing,” he added. “We’re just trying to take it to the next level.”
The 37th Texas Black Invitational Rodeo begins at 7 p.m. Saturday, July 25, at Fair Park Coliseum in Dallas. Doors open at 6 p.m. Tickets start at $28, with proceeds benefiting the African American Museum, Dallas.
