Frontier Justice: Bass Reeves Deputy US Marshal. Talking with author Charlie Ray

The San Francisco Experience

Bass Reeves was one of the first African Americans to be named a Deputy US Marshal West of the Mississippi in the late 1800s. He arrested more than 3000 fugitives in the Oklahoma Territory and the West. With a photographic memory, he was able to recall warrant details which stood him in good stead, as he couldn't read or write. Charlie Ray shines the light of history on the prominent role that African Americans played in the Old West, contrary to the Hollywood version.

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