A Byrd You Should Know
If you know Wyoming history, you know Liz Byrd—the first Black woman elected to the Wyoming Legislature, who served from 1981 to 1992 and fought for more than a decade to make Martin Luther King Jr. Day a Wyoming state holiday. WyoHistory.org has told her story. But her husband Jim deserves his own place in the record.
In January 1966, James W. “Jim” Byrd became the first Black police chief in Cheyenne—and in Wyoming—after seventeen years of steady work on the force, rising from patrolman to the top job. He spent eight years as chief, modernizing the department and earning enough trust to go on to serve as Wyoming’s highway safety director and U.S. Marshal. Together, he and Liz built a remarkable shared life of public service in Cheyenne that spanned nearly six decades.
His story is the latest addition to our Wyoming’s Founding Figures project, created to mark America’s 250th anniversary.