I'm Erin Burnett, host of Black Cowboys and New IUT Originals podcast. When I was a young kid trying to make sense of the world, my pop made a decision. He didn't want slavery to be my only image of black men in American history.

The stories that we had in my family, but never stories of being victims, but they were stories being successful, free people trying to live their lives against whatever odds they were.

They became cowboys to my pop told me stories, true stories of free black cowboys, stories about not love, the toughest cowboy of them all the lawmen. That's really the outlaw Cherokee bill and many others. And they were more than just great stories.

They gave his young son hope. I can't wait to share these stories with you, listen to black cowboys on the radio, out on Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast.