Posted on Jan 28, 2022
Bucking stereotypes, a Black cowboy leads the way in South Central LA
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https://www.npr.org/2022/01/28/ [login to see] /storycorps-los-angeles-black-cowboys
Growing up in the South Central neighborhood of Los Angeles in the 1970s, Ghuan Featherstone only remembers riding a horse once as a child. His parents took him riding at nearby Griffith Park when he was eight years old.
But ever since, he's been chasing that sense of freedom and power he felt on the horse that day.
"I felt like the Lone Ranger," he said "I felt like I could conquer anything," Featherstone, now 51, said in a StoryCorps interview last month with Jordan Humphreys, a 13-year-old horseback rider.
After serving in the Army for eight years, Featherstone remained determined to realize his childhood dream of becoming a cowboy.
When he returned to Los Angeles, he learned to ride at stables known as "The Hill" in Compton. Riders there would hop on their saddles and take their horses into the city streets.
In 2012, a fire burned down The Hill. What had become a refuge for youth was suddenly gone.
Growing up in the South Central neighborhood of Los Angeles in the 1970s, Ghuan Featherstone only remembers riding a horse once as a child. His parents took him riding at nearby Griffith Park when he was eight years old.
But ever since, he's been chasing that sense of freedom and power he felt on the horse that day.
"I felt like the Lone Ranger," he said "I felt like I could conquer anything," Featherstone, now 51, said in a StoryCorps interview last month with Jordan Humphreys, a 13-year-old horseback rider.
After serving in the Army for eight years, Featherstone remained determined to realize his childhood dream of becoming a cowboy.
When he returned to Los Angeles, he learned to ride at stables known as "The Hill" in Compton. Riders there would hop on their saddles and take their horses into the city streets.
In 2012, a fire burned down The Hill. What had become a refuge for youth was suddenly gone.
Bucking stereotypes, a Black cowboy leads the way in South Central LA
Posted from npr.org
Los Angeles
Horses and Horseback Riding
Stories
Posted 3 y ago
Responses: 1
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Fully 1/4 to 1/3 of old west cowboys were black. Then there were black men like Bass Reeves, as well as Latinos, serving as lawmen in our old west.
Once again America has failed to recognize the contributions of people of color to this nation.
Once again America has failed to recognize the contributions of people of color to this nation.
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
It’s a cold autumn night, sometime in the late 1870s, somewhere in the Western District of Arkansas. The West just cannot get Wilder here. You are on the run...
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LTC David Brown
Stan, you are absolutely correct. My family, father’s side, homesteaded in Nebraska, there neighbors were Blacks from the South. My aunts best friend was the only white girl in her school. A lot f people do not know about Bass Reeves or Mary “Stage CoachMary” Fields.
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