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Hats Off to the Black Cowboys and Cowgirls in the City of Brotherly Love [1]
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Date: 2022-09-21
A quarter of cowboys were Black; naturally they were rarely depicted in westerns.
I remember driving to work early one morning through an area of Philly known as Strawberry Mansion, and seeing several men riding horses. I’m not talking about hansom cabs, I’m talking about men riding at a pretty good clip (canter) in north Philly. I went to work and asked long time Philly residents if I had simply imagined it or if Philly really did have cowboys. To my amazement, I learned that Philly has had black cowboys for over a hundred years. With your help, I would like to keep that organization going.
The group is called the Fletcher Street Urban Riding Club and was founded by Mr. Ellis Ferrell, known affectionately as El-Dog. Mr. Ferrell grew up learning to ride at his grandmother’s farm in Tallahassee, Florida but moved north as a young man. He would rent horses at Fairmont Park (in the 1940’s) and that is when he really started to hone his equestrian skills. If you have ever ridden a horse, there is something spiritual about the experience in my opinion. It is an empowering thing to be able to control an intelligent, 1000 pound animal with only a few minor adjustments to the tack and your posture.
Mr. Ferrell realized that riding wasn’t just recreational but had the potential to be life changing for the youth in an area hit hard by drugs, systemic racism, and poverty. In 1980, El-Dog bought five horses and a stable on 31st and Master St. in the Brewerytown section of Philly. He founded the club in 2004 and recalls those days as good times. Today, the area is undergoing gentrification, and the club doesn’t own the land. In 2020, they did a ride out to promote GOTV, stopping at several symbolic pieces of urban artwork. Their effort is similar to Compton’s Cowboys “F^#K Talking, Go Vote” efforts in LA.
A movie (Concrete Cowboys) was loosely based on a novel Ghetto Cowboy by Greg Neri but does include some actual members of the FSURC. Despite being featured in the Netflix movie, and numerous other projects, it appears none of the artists have given any financial support to an organization they had no qualms about using as their inspiration (a new GoFundMe organization has been formed and Mr. Fletcher is rightfully concerned that people will confuse the two sites and money meant for his stables will go to the other site).
In their fight against gentrification, Mr. Ferrell and the Fletcher Street Riding Club continue to wage the good war, but these real life cowboys need our support. In addition, to helping out the local community, they also rescue abused horses and encourage people to vote. I know people are stretched right now but keeping our kids away from trouble and teaching them responsibility is what Mr. Ferrell wants his legacy to be; personally, I think he is deserving of much more. At the very least, the man who has spent most of his life shouldn’t have to worry what will happen to his beloved horses and community once he passes. They have a GoFundMe site gofund.me/… where you can donate as they are well short of their $100K goal needed to purchase land for grazing and stables.
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