Some Americans would be unsettled to learn that their favorite hero was a Black man; others, the complete opposite

“The Lone Ranger’s Black?” [1,2]

As histories go, it’s hard to imagine four words that intersect more threads than those above — spoken by a fictional character. Spoken by time machine pilot Rufus Carlin during the 2016-2017 season of Timeless, it was his typically matter-of-fact reaction when he first saw Deputy Marshall Bass Reeves in the year 1882. [3,4]

In 2018, “pop culture historian” Martin Grams Jr produced a 22-page white paper earnestly aimed at debunking this myth. His personal appearances during Comic Cons and lecture on The Green Hornet scheduled at The Library of Congress in 2020 were cancelled due to COVID-19 outbreak. [5-9]

The importance of creating and substantiating superhuman icons needs no argument. When the Museum of Science and Industry re-opens next week, its next stop for “Marvel: Universe of Super Heroes” will serve as cornerstone for celebrations. [10,11]

As that exhibition has traveled, some visitors with an eye toward immediate focuses of Black History Month might have taken note of relative newcomers to the genre. [12]

The first African American superhero did not appear until The Falcon was introduced in September of 1969 — as sidekick to Captain America. In 1972, Luke Cage was introduced as “Marvel’s answer to the popularity of early ’70s blaxploitation fimls like Shaft and Superfly. [13-15]

Near the close of Marvel: Universe of Super Heroes, visitors were given an opportunity to vote for their one favorite character. The running total is cumulative through all venues. To the surprise of no one, Iron Man and Captain America ranked among the top five, with Shellhead bettering Cap by over a hundred thousand points, at 318,004 just before Christmas Day in The Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation gallery.

Spider-Man garnered more than twice that.

However, in the interest of getting the facts correct, Web-Slinger was more than seven thousand ticks behind the most popular Marvel character by public acclaim. With 650,519 votes (or 16% of the grand total), that honor went to Black Panther.

A similar commitment to historic accuracy led Martin Grams to passonately advocate for correcting the record on fundamentally unsubstantiated assertions about the so-called Black heritage of The Lone Ranger. “This, in part,” he wrote for Western Magazine Digest two summers ago, “detracted from the good name of Bass Reeves as readers focused not on his exploits and accomplishments, but instead on the fake Lone Ranger connection for which readers were primarily fixated.” [16]

Indeed, three weeks earlier on June 21, 2019 Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Deputy Eugene Rush had used a YouTube clip of an old Lone Ranger opening to introduce his own presentation on the role of mounted units in community policing. And the focus here was not on the rider, but on his horse, Silver. [17-21]

Here, among the many ongoing values of using horses as a vital part of this mix, a recent article on the subject observed that, “Many people think that cops riding on horseback somehow appear to be more friendly, approachable and even personable ….” This fits into a larger understanding of the psychological and even relational value that horses bring to interactions both with and among people. [22-24]

If anyone in attendance during the Eighth Annual Senior Conference that day in Saline had any questions about supposed historical connections between the character in that bit of film and Deputy Marshall Reeves, they didn’t say so. [25]

But it was both historically and culturally important as setup to the scene from Timeless cited above. Deployed from present-day for an encounter with famed outlaw Jesse James, the three main characters in the series quickly discovered that they needed help. Team member Lucy Preston, a historian, suggested Bass Reeves — thus setting the trio off on a trek to his nearby homestead.

“So this US Marshall is the guy The Lone Ranger is based off of?” asked Wyatt Logan, attached to the group from US Army Delta Force.

“That’s what they say,” Ms Preston replied.

Bass Reeves was responsible for over three thousand arrests during his career. Arguably the best lawman in the old west.

“If he’s that good, why didn’t the town come to him for help?” Rufus Carlin interjected.

That is when he saw Bass Reeves step out onto the house porch. And the time machine pilot spoke again, posing the question that opened this piece.

References

1. “Timeless – The Lone Ranger Is Black?” Time Travel Nexus (February 28, 2018) YouTube.
2. “‘The Lone Ranger’ debuts on Detroit Radio” (January 27, 2021) History.
3. “Timeless” IMDb.
4. “Bass Reeves: The Lone Ranger” Biographics (September 16, 2019) YouTube.
5. “Bass Reeves and The Lone Ranger: Debunking the Myth” Martin Grams Jr (2018) OTR Publishing.
6. Martin Grams Jr (home page).
7. Coronavirus (COVID-19) (home page).
8. “Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)” CDC: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
9. “Novel Coronavirus Reports” CDC.
10. “‘Marvel: Universe of Super Heroes’ exhibition at The Henry Ford hooks visitors into exciting story behind the story” Dell Deaton (December 23, 2020) Saline Journal.
11. Museum of Science and Industry (home page).
12. “What Is Black History Month and How Did It Begin?” Lisa Vox (January 31, 2021) Thought Co.
13. “The High-Flying History of the Falcon” Jim Beard (January 11, 2021) Marvel.
14. “Marvel’s Luke Cage isn’t afraid of the character’s blaxploitation roots. It embraces them, and is better for it.” Alex Abad-Santos (September 30, 2016) Vox.
15. “Blaxploitation: What It Is … What It Was” (April 14, 2020) The Grindhouse Database (GCDb).
16. “Bass Reeves and The Lone Ranger: Debunking the Myth, Part 1” Martin Grams Jr (July 13, 2019) Western Magazine Digest.
17. Sheriff’s Office, Washtenaw County Michigan (home page).
18. “The Lone Ranger” Toginet Radio (August 28, 2014) YouTube.
19. “Mounted Unit” Sheriff’s Office, Washtenaw County Michigan.
20. Community Policing: Defined (2014,2012) United States Department of Justice.
21. “Community Policing” Bureau of Justice Statistics, US Department of Justice.
22. “Mounted Police: Why Do Policemen In Some Big Cities Still Use Horses?” Ashish (February 21, 2021) Science ABC.
23. “Why Do Horses Help Us Heal?” Diane Dreher PhD (January 6, 2018) Psychology Today.
24. “William Shatner talks to horses and they ‘talk’ back” AP: Associated Press (June 1, 2017) YouTube.
25. “It’s worth taking a step back to assess annual Saline mayor’s ‘Senior Conference’ as much more than sum of offerings” Dell Deaton (June 18, 2018) Saline Journal.