Faculty ProfileHe’s known for his cowboy hat, good nature, and loud laugh. His laugh, loud and quite infectious, can be heard
from almost anywhere on the second floor of Allgood Hall, where his office is located. Mike Searles, affectionately and appropriately known as Cowboy Mike or the Black Cowboy, is more than just a cowboy–he’s an assistant professor of history, also chairs the Black History Month Committee, and is responsible for bringing the Buffalo Soldiers to ASU each year as part of ASU’s celebration of black history.
Mr. Searles’ love of history began at an early age, he says. When he was 5 or 6 years old, he can remember becoming extremely fascinated with the past.
“I was intrigued with things that happened before I was born,” he says. “In fact, as I went through school, I was so interested in knowing things that my peers nicknamed me “The Professor.”
The Ohio native’s fascination with cowboys and the West also began at an early age, when he used to watch movies about cowboys and the Wild West. He never realized that there were black cowboys, he says, until the 1960s when he began reading about them.
“The book, Adventures of the Negro Cowboys by Philip Durham, really sparked my interest,” says Mr. Searles.
He studied and taught in Washington, D.C., where his wife, Toni, worked as an educational specialist at the Smithsonian Institute. He accepted a position as a teacher at Bogg’s Academy in Waynesboro in 1977 so that he and his wife could experience life in the South.
“I took my students on a field trip to Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia, and on the way back, I bought my first cowboy hat,” he laughs.
After that trip, Mr. Searles began giving presentations about black cowboys to elementary, middle, and high schools, as well as to civic clubs, churches, and other schools in various parts of the country. It was his many presentations that led him to write about black cowboys. A chapter he authored on Addison Jones appears in a book titled Black Cowboys of Texas.
Mr. Searles is the vice president of the Bogg’s Real Life Center and the Authors Club of Augusta. He serves on the membership committee of the Western Writers of America and is a member of the Western History Association and the Organization of American Historians. He is also the membership chairman of the Georgia Association of Historians.
He earned a bachelor’s degree from Southern Illinois University, a master’s degree from Howard University, and is working on a doctoral degree from The Union Institute.
Soon, he would like to write a cookbook titled Cowboy Mike is Full Beans. The subtitle would read Recipes and Tales from the West.
“At least six to eight people told me how much they loved my beans at this year’s campus holiday luncheon,” he laughs. “I truly love to laugh and have a good time.”
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