Soul Circuit: Juneteenth Rodeos in Texas

March 20 - June 29, 2025

Soul Circuit: Juneteenth Rodeos in Texas honors the underappreciated cowboys and cowgirls of a particular time and place through images by photographer Sarah Bird. In the late 1970s, a time when rodeo competitors with ranch backgrounds were more the rule than the exception, Black communities throughout Texas held local rodeos for cowboys and cowgirls excluded from the mainstream, white-sponsored circuits. Known as the “Soul Circuit,” this thriving network of small-town rodeos played a crucial role in perpetuating and sustaining the more than two-hundred-year lineage of Black cowboys in America. These jubilant occasions, particularly Juneteenth rodeos, celebrated fellowship, community, and victories both in and out of the arena.   

In 2019, Sarah Bird generously donated her photo archive comprised of 35mm negatives, contact sheets and slides to The Wittliff Collections. We digitized all of her rodeo negatives. In addition to black rodeos, she documented the Girls Rodeo Association, charreadas, the Old-timer Rodeo Cowboy Association, and Huntsville prison rodeos in the 1970’s. 

Sarah endearingly acknowledged our contribution in her publication, Juneteenth Rodeo, writing that we brought her “sleeping photos back to life…digitizing them into the 21st century.”

Soul Circuit: Juneteenth Rodeos in Texas is an exhibition by Humanities Texas created in collaboration with photographer Sarah Bird and the Neill-Cochran House Museum.