The Real Lone Ranger - American Story with Bob Dotson

Описание: 1973, Muskogee, OK - The Reverend Charles Davis hoisted his cane for attention. “Bass Reeves!” he shouted. We looked at one another for some clue as to what was to come. The only sound was an industrious bee in a honeysuckle bush. “I can tell you more about him than perhaps you ever heard.” Bass Reeves was the inspiration for the Lone Ranger.

He was born a slave in 1838, nearly a century before the Lone Ranger first rode on radio. During the Civil War, he accompanied his master’s son to fight for the Confederacy. One night Bass escaped to Indian territory in what is now eastern Oklahoma. Five Native American tribes ruled the region — Cherokee, Seminole, Creek, Choctaw and Chickasaw. They had been forced from their homelands along the east coast and sent west along a “trail of tears.”

Bass learned their customs, their languages, hiding among them until slavery ended. He came to know the 75-thousand acres of Indian Territory so well, Bass was offered an historic position at war’s end — the first Black U.S. deputy Marshal west of the Mississippi.

He took a creative approach to his investigations, sometimes disguising himself to get the jump on suspects. One time Bass walked nearly 30 miles dressed as a beggar on the run from authority. When he arrived at the home of his targets, two brothers, their mother suggested that he stay the night. Bass accepted her offer, and the sons were in handcuffs before sunrise. He served 32 years. Arrested more than 4,000 people. Many of the fugitives were sent to the Detroit House of Corrections, in the same city where WXYZ radio introduced the Lone Ranger to the world on January 30, 1933. The show’s writer, Frank Striker, didn’t make the lawman black, but gave him a black mask and a friend, Tonto, who represented the native Americans who worked with Bass Reeves.

The legendary lawman was eventually removed from his position in 1907, when Oklahoma gained statehood. As an African-American, Bass was unable to continue in his position as deputy marshal under the new state laws. That didn’t stop him. In retirement he arrested his own son, Bennie, for killing his son’s wife.

“Maybe the law ain’t perfect,” he said, “but it’s the only one we got, and without it we got nuthin’!”

America survives and thrives because of all those names we don’t know, seemingly ordinary people who do extraordinary things. They don’t run for president or go on talk shows, but without them, the best of America would not exist.

Bob Dotson was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of Dottie Bailey, a singer who performed on NBC radio and Bill Dotson, a janitor who dropped out of school in fifth grade, but attended night classes for 23 years and later earned an honorary masters degree in Opthalmics for his study of the eye.

Their youngest son Bob began a remarkable Odyssey of his own, after graduating from Kansas University in 1968. Bob Dotson crisscrossed this country, more than four million miles, searching for people who are practically invisible, the ones who change our lives, but don’t take time to tweet and tell us about it.

His quest got noticed. Dotson won Oklahoma’s first National Emmy for a 90-minute documentary on African American history called “Through the Looking Glass Darkly.” He was nominated for 11 national Emmys — and won seven more — after he became an NBC News correspondent in 1975. His long-running series, “The American Story with Bob Dotson,” was a regular feature on the TODAY Show for 40 years. He is now a New York Times Best Selling author and writes a daily blog which The Society of Professional Journalists cited as the “best in new media.”

Dotson continues producing documentaries. An NBC production, “El Capitan’s Courageous Climbers,” won seven International Film Festivals and documentary's highest honor, the CINE Grand Prize. He is one of the most honored storytellers of our time. His reporting and storytelling have earned 120 awards around the world. They include top honors from the Kennedy Center, DuPont Columbia and a record six Edward R. Murrow Awards for Best Network News Writing. In 2014, Dotson received the William Allen White Foundation National Citation for journalistic excellence. In 2019 he joined Will Rogers in the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame.

Bob is the author of four books, including the New York Times best-selling “American Story: A Lifetime Search for Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things.” (Penguin/Random House)

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/bo...

The latest edition of his classic, “Make It Memorable: Writing and Packaging Visual News with Style” became Amazon’s best-selling journalism book. It is being studied on 26 campuses and in newsrooms around the world. (Roman & Littlefield.)

https://www.amazon.com/Make-Memorable...