Mollie Taylor Stevenson, Jr.

Mollie Taylor Stevenson Jr. grew up on the family ranch, Taylor-Stevenson Ranch in Houston, Texas, attended Texas Southern University, and worked as a professional model before returning to the ranch to preserve her family’s legacy. Today the ranch is one of the oldest black-owned ranches in America and was named a “Texas Century Ranch” to recognize ownership of a Texas ranch by the same family for over a century. It was also recognized as the only African American owned ranch in Texas with this designation. This legacy began when her great-grandfather, white Confederate veteran E. R. Taylor, and former slave Ann George lived together as husband and wife, despite laws prohibiting interracial marriages. The Taylors instilled in their six children the importance of education, love of the land and public service—values that prevail in the family today. In addition, the family donated a 26-acre preserve to the Houston Parks Board so children could visit and interact with animals. In 1988, Mollie Jr. founded the American Cowboy Museum on Taylor-Stevenson Ranch to highlight the roles of African Americans, Hispanos, Native Americans, and women in the West and to introduce a new generation to this often-overlooked history. She and her mother, Mollie Taylor Stevenson Sr., were the first living African Americans inducted into the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame in Fort Worth in 2001.