State-Of-Black-Oregon-2015

OREGON SNAPSHOTOWNING THE ONLY BLACKBUSINESS IN PENDLETONLeon Ransom’s home has walls plasteredall over with pictures. He can tell you thestory behind each one. He says, “I’m thefamily historian.”This is a rightful distinction, considering that he’sbeen in Pendleton since he was six-months old.Born in Springfield, Illinois, Leon moved with hismother and older brother to Pendleton in 1952.They were following his father, who’d arrived twoyears earlier to work on the railroads.Leon’s parents had worked as sharecroppers inMississippi. His father would pick 200-300 poundsof cotton a day. “I asked my dad why he stoppedhere in Pendleton. He said he wanted to get as faraway from the cotton fields as he could.”As a youth, Leon was never afraid to speak hismind. When the family went back to Mississippi,they wouldn’t let him go into town with hisseven siblings because they feared for his safety.Leon’s attitude didn’t endear him to many inPendleton either, but his athletic exploits morethan made up for that. He played football,basketball and baseball, and he ran track.Despite a few confrontations, he never got intotoo much trouble because the school wantedhim on the field. He was one of the top footballplayers in the state, even though he only playedhis senior year—surprising because he spentthat entire school year in jail. Leon had gottencaught with marijuana. To make an example ofhim, the judge sentenced him to a year behindbars. He could, however, get out to go toschool and play sports. Ironically, the man whoprosecuted Leon helped him get into Universityof Nevada in Las Vegas. To this day, he stays incontact with many of his teammates. His wifejokes that high school never ended.Now, he spends a lot of time with horses. Heworks as a pen rider, attending to farmers’ cattle.“If you don’t know livestock, they don’t wantyou around them. But I grew up with these guys.They know that I can ride. That I can rope.”Leon first took an interest in horses and farmingas a child. He and his father would go huntingwith George Fletcher, a famed Black cowboy androdeo competitor, whose statue now stands indowntown Pendleton.Leon started going to the Pendleton Round-Up, one of the world’s biggest rodeos, when hewas six. The town’s population quadruples forthe event. The Round-Up gives him a chance tocatch up with other Black cowboys who comeinto town. They pay little attention to the anticsof some of the other cowboys. “These good oleboys, they’ll test you. Anything but the n-word I’lllet slide most times. You’ll stay mad all the time ifyou keep that in your head. It’s got nothing to dowith me. It’s their personal problem.”126