Bass Reeves became the first African American deputy U.S. marshal west of the Mississippi River in 1875.
Born into slavery in Arkansas around 1838, Reeves escaped during the Civil War and later settled in the Indian Territory, now Oklahoma. In 1875, U.S. Marshal James F. Fagan appointed him as a deputy marshal for the Western District of Arkansas, which included much of Indian Territory.
Reeves served for about 32 years and arrested more than 3,000 people, according to accounts of his career. He was known for his skill with disguises, firearms, and reading legal documents, since he could not read himself and often had them read aloud.
He is sometimes incorrectly described as the first Black lawman in the entire United States; the more precise distinction is that he was the first Black deputy U.S. marshal west of the Mississippi. Reeves later became a police officer in Muskogee, Oklahoma.