Charles “Charlie” Sampson (born July 2, 1957 in Los Angeles, California) is the 1982 World Champion bull rider.[1] He is the first Afro-American to win a World Title in the PRCA.
Sampson was a ground breaking rodeo cowboy. Sampson stands 5ft 4in tall. He was the first Afro-American to win a world title in the PRCA.[2] To avoid the violence that surrounded him as a boy, he took a job at a riding stables near Gardena, CA. There he sparked an interest in horses and rodeo. He was a fan of the Jackie Robinson of rodeo Myrtis Dightman.
In 1983, there were only 6 black members of the PRCA. Charles was competing on a national level. Charlie very rarely mentioned race as an issue, even though he was competing in a sport dominated by white competitors. Charles once said in the New York Times, “I haven’t encountered discrimination as much as ignorance. Some people still don’t realize that something like a quarter of all the cowboys back in the old West were black.”
how did u charles sampson change the world
He is the first African-American to win a World Title in the PRCA.
It was the duty of the slave to wrestle up the cattle and break in the untamed. The whites use to bet on them I read this over thirty years ego when the black Dodson came to NY.