Compton Cowboys: Inner City Cowboys Building Their Community

Nat Love, an African American cowboy and writer. He is considered one of the most famous heroes from the Old West

Compton, California was once known as an equestrian community, full of people who worked with horses. In the early 1900s, most of Los Angeles was farm and ranchland, with Compton as no exception. As Black Americans moved to California from the South, they brought ranching and horses with them. In the central Compton neighborhood, Richland Farms, horses were the cornerstone of the community. Black Americans in this area were working ranches, riding horses, and hosting rodeos. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, the neighborhood began to change. The rise of gangs brought violence to the city. However, for some small groups, horses remained an important piece of their lives. 

In 1988, Mayisha Akbar decided to make a change. With every child that died from gang violence in her neighborhood, Akbar became more incensed. Feeling compelled to better her neighborhood, she started the Compton Jr Posse, a program dedicated to solving the lack of activities for underserved youth in Compton. Specifically, Akbar aimed her program towards children at risk of “dropping out of school, gangs, incarceration, and continuing poverty.” The Compton Jr Posse (CJP) helped these children reach personal and academic goals by offering an alternative to the world of drugs and gang culture. The CJP had a high school competitive riding team, after school camps, and tons of equine backed learning opportunities. This program was a transformative experience for tons of children and teenagers in the area for the thirty years it ran. As Akbar stepped towards retirement, the program was destined to come to a close. When she announced her plans to shut do

wn the program, several alumni stepped up; they call themselves “The Compton Cowboys." 

Apparel sold by The Compton Cowboys, proceeds go towards funding youth scholarships at CJE

A group of six, the Compton Cowboys are an assembly of men and one woman who grew up participating in the Compton Jr Posse. They use social media presence to accomplish their goals of positively influencing inner-city youth. The Compton Cowboys are constantly posting on different platforms, promoting appearances at rodeos across the country, an upcoming short film, and their very own, Randall Hooks, running for office. The group wants to challenge the narrative typically pushed about their city and community by paying “homage to Black-Americans in western and equine heritage.” With Akbar’s retirement, Randall Hook, one of the Compton Cowboys, embarked on a community service mission to help serve children. Hook wanted to give local youth the same experience he had growing up in Compton, one filled with community, responsibility, and horses. He paired with another equestrian fanatic and Compton native, Jamie Vance. Together, they created the Compton Jr. Equestrians (CJE), continuing the work of the Compton Jr Posse and further executing the vision behind the Compton Cowboys. As an affiliate non-profit organization that partners with the Compton Cowboys, the Compton Jr. Equestrians program is a real push to help the community. As a program, its stated mission goals are to decrease the number of incarcerated youths and school dropout rates, increase graduation rates for secondary and postsecondary education, and grow workforce and community participation rates. In other words, it wants to help build a more active population in the community, focusing on safety and continued education. Additionally, the program is set up for its impact to go beyond childhood, helping alumni flourish in their adult lives via the skills gained through the program. 

Participant of CJE happily riding his horse

With a general goal of keeping youth off the streets and involved in their community, the organization has different outreach programs. Offering field trips, after-school lessons, and summer camps, the Basic Equine Programs serve to involve kids. With one-day and all summer long options, the CJE wants every child to take an interest in horses. On top of these introductory programs, there are more intensive options, such as the Western Riding and British Riding programs, for children with the requisites and interest in competitive riding styles and careers within the equine field. Every program is united in some key ways, most importantly, the Clinical Services Program. The Clinical Services Program has a self-reflection portion that includes “character building, academic enrichment, and career planning” to set up the children for success in their non-equestrian lives. The curriculum of the program is focused on horse anatomy, care, and riding. There’s also a coordinated tracking of personal growth and wellness. With these internal development focuses, there is also a strong emphasis on health, school performance, and literacy, with cultural history regularly taking the spotlight. As they educate kids and keep them off the streets, the Compton Jr Equestrian Ranch serves as a “safe-haven” from the drugs, violence, and poverty that so often affect the lives of youth in Compton.

As a part of the CJE, the children also build academic skills; the skills developed to care for a 1000lb animal and the skills to attack homework are surprisingly related, as “the problem-solving demanded when working with horses cultivates analytical thinking applicable to math and science.” The students learn consistency, responsibility, and time management through caring for the horses, as horses are complicated animals that require detail-oriented and consistent care. Learning how to be accountable for their horse spreads to the other areas of their lives. Studies have shown that equine-assisted learning helps with communication, trust, confidence, and teamwork skills in children.  The program also highlights the usefulness of classes at school; it provides real-life situations where classes are relevant. Lessons in biology are not reasonless to students who care for a horse, and math becomes relevant when applied to feeding ratios. School becomes an active and necessary part of extracurricular activities. Lessons at school, for children participating in these programs, become more important than just a grade; classes directly apply to fun areas of the students' lives. 

Overall, Compton has changed a lot as a city over the last twenty years. As violence rates decline, it is important to look towards why. Current Compton Mayor, Emma Sharif, recognized that youth programs offered in the city “really do help reduce crime rates” in Compton. The CJE is one of many recently established programs doing the heavy lifting in influencing local youth. With children participating in healthy and fun activities, working on personal development, and growing academic skills, the community's health is improving. It’s important to maintain cultural integrity and return to the roots of a community when repairing it, and the Compton Cowboys have done just that. In an area where violence, drugs, and poverty have run rampant for so long, the Compton Jr Equestrian Ranch is doing its part to make a change.