Cowboy Carter Meets Climate Justice 🐎

June 2025

Yeehaw! With the Cowboy Carter tour in full swing, there’s no better time to bring Queen Bey back into the conversation. The internet is buzzing with Cowboy Carter TikToks, and for good reason. Beyoncé’s latest era is more than just a country album: it’s a bold reclamation of Black identity, Southern womanhood, and Americana itself. From the cowboy hat to the American flag, every detail challenges the whitewashed narrative of who gets to be part of the country music tradition.

Historically, the word “cowboy” was actually used to describe Black and Mexican cowhands, a far cry from the white, cisgender, male image that dominates Western pop culture today. 

As we approach Juneteenth, it's important to reflect on the ways Black people have been systematically pushed out of land ownership, farming, and environmental spaces.

Juneteenth, now a federal holiday, marks a powerful and often-overlooked moment in U.S. history. On June 19, 1865, Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas (just 50 miles from Beyoncé’s hometown of Houston) to announce that the enslaved people there were finally free. This was two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation had been signed. In the meantime, many enslaved Black people had been unlawfully kept in bondage, forced to continue laboring without knowledge of their freedom.

After emancipation, there was a brief effort to support newly freed Black families through the promise of “40 acres and a mule,” a policy meant to provide land as a foundation for independent life. 

But that promise was quickly rescinded by President Andrew Johnson. Instead, formerly enslaved people were pushed into exploitative sharecropping systems that kept them economically dependent and largely landless.

These early betrayals set the stage for a long history of land theft, displacement, and exclusion. Today, Black farmers make up less than 2% of all U.S. farmers. Many have faced systemic barriers to land access, credit, and federal agricultural support. USDA class action lawsuits brought by Black farmers reveal a persistent pattern of discrimination in funding, debt relief, and resource allocation.

But just like New Communities Inc. the first community land trust in the U.S., formed during the civil rights era to reclaim cooperative farming in the South, there’s a new wave of Black land stewards, farmers, and climate leaders rising up today. 

Black farming cooperatives are a key part of this movement. These cooperatives are farmer-led, collectively owned organizations that allow Black farmers to pool resources, share equipment, and advocate for their rights. In a system historically designed to marginalize them, cooperatives offer a powerful strategy for economic resilience and mutual support. They’re not just about growing food—they’re about growing power. And they represent a living resistance to the forces of extraction and exclusion that have long shaped U.S. agriculture.

This spirit of reclamation extends beyond the farm and into culture. Beyoncé’s Rodeo Ivy Park collection is a striking tribute to the legacy of Black cowgirls and cowboys, infused with nods to her hometown of Houston, Texas, where Western culture thrives. Her collection featured legendary actor Glynn Turman riding a horse alongside his granddaughter, Melinda Siegal, both in full Western gear. While Turman is best known for his roles in A Different

World, Cooley High, and The Wire, he’s also a real-life

rodeo champion. 

Beyoncé’s Rodeo aesthetic is also political. In 2020, thousands filled the streets of downtown Houston, many on horseback, demanding justice for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and so many others. These Black riders didn’t just show up; they made themselves seen. Towering above the crowd, matching the mounted police in both stature and symbolism, they evoked a radical image of resistance deeply rooted in history.

From the album’s title to her choice of venues, many connected to the historic Chitlin' Circuit, which once offered Black performers safe spaces during segregation, Beyoncé is lifting up a legacy of Black artistry, survival, and pride.

Cowboy Carter is a powerful reminder that Black people have always been here, rooted in the land and shaping America’s story. Today, that legacy of resistance lives on in our farms, our forests, and on the frontlines of grassroots environmental justice movements.

On “Ya Ya,” she growls,

“My family lived and died in America / Good ole USA / Whole lotta red in that white and blue, huh / History can’t be erased.”

And we can’t be erased.