Archie Rutledge was born on August 11, 1913, one of ten children of Butch and Ella Rutledge in Gainesville, Florida. That same year, the Rutledge family relocated to Palmetto. At the time, educational opportunities for African American children in Florida were severely limited due to deep-seated racial segregation and inequality. Black students were restricted to separate schools—often privately funded and poorly resourced—where secondhand materials were the norm.
While Archie’s six sisters were encouraged to pursue schooling, he and his brothers left after the third grade to help support the family. At just 11 years old, Archie began working at Harrison’s Packing Plant, where his father secured him a job as a butcher. His primary task, as recorded in a 1980 interview by the Manatee County Historical Society, was skinning cattle in the slaughter pen.
By age 17, Archie had joined a cattle crew that roamed the woods collecting stray cows. It quickly became apparent that Archie had a special talent—an innate ability to manage horses, even the most skittish and untamed…