Verna Lee Booker Hightower

Verna Lee "Boots" Booker Hightower (June 26, 1930 – August 27, 1970) was an American rodeo cowgirl and civil rights activist. She is recognized for being the first African-American woman to become an official member of the Girl's Rodeo Association and compete in barrel racing at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.

Biography Verna Lee Booker was born on June 26, 1930, in Spring, Texas. She was the daughter of Arthur Booker and Alvirita Wells and had a love of horses at an early age. Arthur and Alvirita had five children and raised them on the family's fruit tree farm where Verna Lee gained her nickname "Boots". In 1947, Alvirita Wells moved to Japan to follow her new husband, bringing Verna Lee and her sister Vivian O'Dell Lee with her. In 1951, Vivian followed their mother and stepfather when he was reassigned to a posting in Seattle, Washington. Verna Lee would not join them.

Rodeo career By 1949, Verna Lee returned to Texas, where she married Ted Roosevelt Hightower. After her marriage, Verna Lee Hightower raised livestock and rode horses more competitively, entering local rodeos. Hightower was a member of the National Colored Rodeo Association and the Girl's Rodeo Association (now the Women's Professional Rodeo Association). In 2007, Hightower was inducted into the National Multicultural Western Heritage Museum's Hall of Fame.

Personal life Verna Lee and her husband Ted Hightower shared six children together. In 1963, the Hightowers won a lawsuit against the Houston Independent School District allowing their children to attend the White schools nearby their home rather than Black schools farther away.