‘Beyond Black Beauty’ brings together an 1877 classic novel and a Black family in Baltimore

By Ronda Racha Penrice, NBC News

Black cowboy culture is getting its moment in the sun. 

Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter” album, Shaboozey’s popular single “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” films like “The Harder They Fall,” and the Black riders on horseback during the George Floyd protests have helped further shed light on the popularity of Black cowboys and cowgirls. Now a new series adds to it.

“Beyond Black Beauty” expands on the often-adapted classic 1877 novel “Black Beauty” with an 11-episode series on Prime Video centering Black people, Black girls and women specifically. Jolie Dumont is a teen equestrian with dreams of competing in the Olympics.

Jolie’s parents separate following her father’s business failings, ripping her from an affluent life in Belgium, where her father is from, to a new one in Baltimore, where her mother’s sister runs their family’s century-old ranch. There, Jolie discovers more about herself and her mother’s family’s long horse lineage, especially with her cousin Ronnie at her side.

“Beyond Black Beauty” creator and showrunner Pilar Golden said the task of adapting “this really beautiful” story for the 21st century was daunting.

“I pondered, ‘How do I do that? How do I make it different?’ because ‘Black Beauty’ has existed forever as a black horse and a white character,” the first-time showrunner said. “And so, as a Black woman, I was like, ‘Well, I definitely want to see Black women.’ So this is my love letter to the Black women who raised me.”

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