By — Adam Kemp, PBS News Hour
Golden hour light pours over a boy as he races across the open field on a Shetland pony.
Photographer Nicol Ragland said the moment happened in a flash as she swung her camera to document the shirtless child riding the pony without a saddle and staring straight ahead in the distance.
“It just looks like freedom to me,” Ragland said of the image. “No fear.”
As the number of Black-owned farms and ranches dwindles across the country, Ragland has partnered with several organizations to help record not only the struggles of keeping this way of life alive but also the resilience and joy of Black Oklahomans who live and work on the land.