Saw an episode of Rawhide yesterday featuring the Buffalo Soldiers; the main one was named Gabriel Washington. He explained, “Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln—we like those names.” So much to unpack in the whole show. Wish I had time.

Of course, so many of those shows were often about contemporary politics and race relations. Watching as a kid in the 60s, I knew when a black person showed up we’d get a lesson in racial tolerance. Rawhide was a bit before my TV watching days, & I was surprised to see this.

And surprised that they showed the black characters as complex figures. The 50s movie convention more often had them as paragons of virtue, perhaps to make up for old Hollywood’s habit of demeaning portrayals of black people.