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"They Knew They Were Free": Remembering African American History In The West

Melodie Edwards
The Jane Taylor Re-Enactors Guild pose in their booth at the Higher Ground Fair in Laramie. The booth included museum artifacts and old photos.

African American history in the American West goes back hundreds of years, but not a lot of that history made it into the history books, and many stories are at risk of getting lost in time.

A museum in Denver is working to salvage them before that happens. Wyoming Public Radio's Melodie Edwards sat down with the Black American West Museum's re-enactor guild when they came to Laramie's Higher Ground Fair. She wanted to find out about each of the characters they portrayed in full costume on stage at the fair.

Have a question about this story? Contact the reporter, Melodie Edwards, at medward9@uwyo.edu.

Melodie Edwards is the host and producer of WPM's award-winning podcast The Modern West. Her Ghost Town(ing) series looks at rural despair and resilience through the lens of her hometown of Walden, Colorado. She has been a radio reporter at WPM since 2013, covering topics from wildlife to Native American issues to agriculture.
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