In August 1950, a groundbreaking eight-page color comic insert featuring eleven Black comic strips was published by the Smith-Mann syndicate and distributed in the Pittsburgh Courier newspaper, one of the pre-eminent Black newspapers of that era. Included in the insert was The Chisholm Kid featuring one of the first Black heroes and the first Black cowboy to ever appear in a comic strip. The Chisholm Kid strip had a six-year run and paid homage to the Black cowboys who drove cattle along the Chisholm Trail, from Texas to Kansas, after the Civil War. The Chisholm Kid was presented as an American hero, fully empowered with all of his civil rights, an equal to his white contemporaries such as Hopalong Cassidy and The Lone Ranger, presenting a positive Black hero and supporting cast at a time when Black images in popular media reflected the ugliest racist stereotypes.
