#yes there have been characters of color in westerns before and Yes they've had significant storylines

[anotherneworld]

You can always tell when someone is Young because sometimes a twenty-eight year old man who has obviously not engaged with any contemporary westerns will say something like “the story of what it meant to be Black in the west in the 1800s hasn’t been told,” absolutely disregarding that he is, in fact, standing on the shoulders of Common who was number 3 on the Hell on Wheels call sheet for four years; Jonelle Allen and Henry G Sanders who as Grace and Robert E on Dr Quinn: Medicine Woman explored what it meant to live, love and persevere in the face of daily--and occasionally extremely violent--racism; Rick Worthy in the criminally short-lived Magnificent Seven show; and the unique, complicated and meaty characters portrayed by Richard Grant, Cleo King, Franklyn Ajaye, and Omar Gooding in Deadwood.  

Where Walker: Independence may surpass these other shows is in their writer’s rooms; it will be interesting to see who is getting to tell these stories, and how that changes things.

#truly no offense to Philemon Chambers but he's Wrong in his assertion that this story has never been explored #Walker: Independence #yes there have been characters of color in westerns before and Yes they've had significant storylines #we can praise what WIndy is doing WITHOUT disregarding those that came before