In American western films made from the 1920s forward, the good guys wore white hats, while the bad guys wore black hats. The reason was to differentiate between good and evil.
Stoney Burke didn't follow that trend. He was a good guy who wore a black hat. He could swing a fist along with the best of them, yet he could sit back and sketch as he tried to make rhyme and reason of his latest whodunnit.
To differentiate between good and evil in films good men or women wore light colors and bad ones wore dark ones.
I watched "Ben Hur" a couple of weeks ago.
Charlton Heston (Ben Hur) wore a light blue cape and the horses that pulled the chariot were white.
Stephen Boyd (Mesala) wore black with a red cape and his horses were black.