Opinion: Questions that readers ask

Occasionally, I get questions from readers about columns that I’ve written. If I receive a single inquiry, I respond just to that reader. However, some of my columns have resulted in essentially the same question from several readers. I’m going to take this opportunity to respond to questions that have been asked and about which other readers may have wondered.

Was the Lone Ranger really a black man? Several people asked this question after the Tribune published a column that I’d written for the Feb. 17, 2024, edition, titled, “A Question for Black History Month.” The column concerned Marshal Bass Reeves, a black man and former slave, who escaped captivity and lived among various Native American tribes in Oklahoma territory. He is credited with arresting about 3,000 criminals, and he sometimes wore a disguise to capture them. Several historians believe that the use of a disguise was the inspiration for the Lone Ranger’s mask, and Reeves’ familiarity with Native American culture and language may have generated the idea that the Lone Ranger should have an “Indian companion.”

The Lone Ranger, of course, is fiction. According to the story, he was the lone survivor of a massacre of a troop of Texas Rangers. That’s a bit of a literary stretch from Mr. Reeves, as he worked in Oklahoma Territory, was not a “Ranger,” and did not have a “faithful Indian companion,” although he sometimes worked with a deputy.