The Compton Cowboys shed light on the power of horses and the forgotten history of the African-American rancher.
That's the powerful tagline embodied by the Compton Cowboys, a group of 10 people in the inner pocket of downtown Los Angeles that not only illuminate the art of urban ranching but the often buried history of African-American horsemen.
Our only distinction was that we were able to navigate through it because of the ranch and the horses," Randy Hook, 30, told Fox News.
Randy Hook puts on his cowboy hat in his home in the Richland Farms before attending the PBR event in downtown Los Angeles, Calif. (Walter Thompson-Hernández)
The trials and tribulations of Hook, his comrades, and their 15 horses are captured in Walter Thompson-Hernández's new book "The Compton Cowboys," which bucks the prominent portrayals of the semirural L.A. enclave as a hub notorious for gang violence.
Keenan rides through Compton
By 1860 that number had risen to over 30 percent in Texas, where the cowboy way of life really came into its own.
