A Black Woman’s West: The Life of Rose B. Gordon

Born in the Barker mining district of central Montana Territory, Rose Beatrice Gordon (1883-1968) was the daughter of an African American chef and an emancipated slave who migrated to the West in the early 1880s.

This forthcoming book will tell the story of the Gordon family—John, Anna, Robert, Rose, John Francis Jr., George, and Taylor—and pays tribute to Rose, who lived most of her life in White Sulphur Springs.

In her youth, Rose excelled academically and distinguished herself as a musical performer. As an adult, she established her economic independence as a restaurant owner, massage therapist, and caregiver.

She also made a place for herself in the public sphere through letters to the editor and eventually through a regular newspaper column for the “Meagher County News”—a remarkable undertaking at a time when Black women in America were largely denied a public voice.

As a Black woman in the West, Gordon’s life was ordinary in terms of its day-to-day struggles but extraordinary in its sum.