With support from Tommy Hilfiger, the Compton Cowboys look ahead to corralling an even larger community in their quest for lasting change.&nbsp;

Photography and Video Danielle Levitt
Styled by Miso Dam

A hub of the Americana is preserved within the urban sprawl of Los Angeles, complete with the horses and ranch you&rsquo;d expect to see in a <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/cowgirl-trend-western-boots-hats" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Western</a>. Here, the <a href="https://www.comptoncowboys.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Compton Cowboys</a> ride bareback through one of the country&rsquo;s most notorious neighborhoods. A collective of Black cowboys that run a youth mentorship program, the group defies not only the whitewashed history of equestrian culture in the U.S. but also the checkered reputation of their hometown. Tapped by Tommy Hilfiger for its <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/indya-moore-activists-star-in-tommy-hilfiger-spring-2021-campaign" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Spring 2021 campaign</a>&mdash;which highlights activists and advocates including Indya Moore, Jameela Jamil, and others who stand for <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/iconic-fashion-tributes-to-lgbtq-culture" target="_blank" rel="noopener">LGBTQ+</a> rights, racial equity, and climate change awareness&mdash;the urban collective is a part of the cultural fabric and impetus toward social progress that the American-born brand champions.&nbsp;

When 31-year-old Randy Hook casts his mind back to his first memories, somehow, there are horses. In fact, he would be hard-pressed to remember a time without the gentleeyed creatures nearby. From the first amateur competition he entered at the age of six, to summers spent on his aunt&rsquo;s sprawling ranch, <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/pop%20culture/supermodels-horse-girls-bella-hadid-kendall-jenner" target="_blank" rel="noopener">horses</a> are the connective tissue and sinew that bind the group of childhood friends who have come to be known as the Compton Cowboys together.
The group, based in the South Central LA neighborhood, provides a community and mentorship collective for youth, offering a safe space for kids to go. Their distinctive identity and social mission have been augmented to the national level thanks to the Compton Cowboys&rsquo; partnerships, like Tommy Hilfiger&rsquo;s purpose-driven Moving Forward Together campaign, and the brand&rsquo;s FutureLearn courses. Through these platforms, the Cowboys have the opportunity to give exposure to the underrepresented <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/pop%20culture/new-americana-artists-of-color-reclaiming-the-old-frontier-2019" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Black horse community</a>. Although they have largely been excluded throughout history, Black cowboys and cowgirls have been around since the westward expansion following the Civil War. In the Compton community, however, this history isn&rsquo;t forgotten.

I don&rsquo;t think we even undertstood yet the potential of what we were doing. We just wanted to do something to give back to the community, and horseback riding is just something we grew up in. &mdash;Randy Hook

In 1988, Hook&rsquo;s aunt, Mayisha Akbar, founded Compton Jr. Posse, a ranch and nonprofit organization that took the form of an intentional natural oasis set against the backdrop of man-made neighborhood structures. The program provided city kids access to horseback riding, education about caring for horses, and a variety of other lessons. &ldquo;We all grew up together riding horses in the program,&rdquo; says Hook of the friends&rsquo; history. &ldquo;Starting in the &lsquo;90s and forward we all came through the program in some way shape or form.&rdquo;
While the organization was based out of Compton, kids from all over Los Angeles found their way to Akbar&rsquo;s ranch space. Some, like Inglewood-born Kenneth Atkins, came as yearning youth looking for more relaxed and diverse spaces to learn and engage their love of <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/art/upstate-new-york-artists-hudson-cold-spring" target="_blank" rel="noopener">nature</a>. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been riding horses since I was eight or nine,&rdquo; he explains. And while Atkins immediately knew he loved riding&mdash;he would often spend his time outside the saddle poring over old war movies for their epic horseback scenes&mdash;accessing equestrian pursuits in the midst of a city was difficult. &ldquo;I fell in love with galloping and just being on a horse. I started to get really good,&rdquo; he remembers. &ldquo;There were a lot of older people at the center but not a lot of people that looked like me.&rdquo;

Another member of the group, Oakland-born Roy-Keenan Abercrombia, fell in with the friends in a similarly accidental fashion. &ldquo;My sister had a horse in Oakland, and when she decided she was going to bring it down to LA she had nowhere to keep it,&rdquo; he shares. &ldquo;She found the little ranch in Compton, so she brought her horse down from Richmond, and I&rsquo;ve been riding there ever since. I met the rest of these guys over sunflower seeds. I was the new kid on the block, so my big icebreaker was offering a bag. Our relationship has grown over the years because we&rsquo;ve been fortunate enough to be the kids who get to ride horses in our backyards.&rdquo;
Decades-long friendship, a dedication to building and nurturing a community, and a deep desire to observe and discover less frequently discussed histories of Black cowboys are part of what has kept the group together over the years, but it is also part of the christening force behind the formation of the Compton Cowboys, which officially came together in 2017. &ldquo;We all connected through the program for sure,&rdquo; Hook reflects, &ldquo;but once we got to a more grown-up phase we were really all doing our own thing career-wise. We got this opportunity to do an ad campaign with Guinness beer...They just called out of nowhere looking for Black cowboys so we all banded back together and started coming to the ranch and hanging out. It was a really fun experience that also gave us an idea of how we could do more together, and we&rsquo;ve been doing that ever since.&rdquo;

At the time, <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/music/lil-nas-x-satanic-shoes-launch-human-blood" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lil Nas X</a> had yet to burst onto the scene with <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2Ov5jzm3j8&amp;ab_channel=LilNasXVEVO" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&ldquo;Old Town Road,&rdquo;</a> the infectious ditty that would spark debate over the sonic hallmarks of country music. Nor had <a href="https://www.lofficielsingapore.com/Culture/beyonce-and-blue-ivy-carter-make-history-at-the-grammys" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Beyonc&eacute;</a>, <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/music/solange-cover-story-interview-2019" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Solange</a>, or a number of other musicians and culture influencers who eagerly spread the gospel of the &ldquo;Yeehaw Agenda&rdquo; iconicized images of Black cowboys dripping with sweat, lassos in hand, kicking dusty billows of fine, chalklike red dirt in their wake. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think we even understood yet the potential of what we were doing,&rdquo; says Hook. &ldquo;We just wanted to do something to give back to the community, and horseback riding is just something we grew up in.&rdquo;
&ldquo;We never had a mission of educating people about Black cowboys at first,&rdquo; adds Abercrombia. &ldquo;We were just living our lives. As we got older&mdash;and especially as we founded Compton Cowboys&mdash;it&rsquo;s given us a new appreciation of history because we realize we&rsquo;re connected to a legacy. Over the last few years we&rsquo;ve really started to educate ourselves because you don&rsquo;t learn Black cowboy history in school. It&rsquo;s really exciting because we&rsquo;re in the midst of all of this cultural exchange so it&rsquo;s like we&rsquo;re getting educated but also teaching at the same time.&rdquo;

We&rsquo;ve been staying true to what we do: Take care of the ranch and the horses so that when things get back to normal, we&rsquo;re able to provide the space the kids need to grow and learn. &mdash;Kenneth Atkins

The group looks at their partnerships as an extension of this give-and-take exchange, having been featured in both the fashion and lifestyle spaces. &ldquo;We know that major brands have a bad habit of trying to co-opt cultural moments and turn them into capitalistic opportunities,&rdquo; says Hook. &ldquo;We look for opportunities to tell our story in a real way because at the end of the day we&rsquo;re trying to bring awareness to what we do for our community.&rdquo; Part of what drew the Cowboys to working with <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/tommy-hilfiger-usa-logo" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tommy Hilfiger</a> this season was the opportunity it gave them to create a campaign with depth that went beyond the optics of Black cowboys as a pop culture aesthetic. Lensed at their ranch, the campaign spotlights the group&rsquo;s unified identity as modern cowboys, and also expanded to include an online educational course hosted by the Compton Cowboys on the importance of mentorship and community change. &ldquo;We always look for partnerships that let us get deeper into our mission because that&rsquo;s the most important work to us. We were able to curate every single part of this down to the editorial, which really spotlights our purpose and how we operate in Compton.&rdquo;

We&rsquo;re connected to a legacy. Over the last few years we&rsquo;ve really started to educate ourselves because ou don&rsquo;t learn Black cowboy history in school. &mdash;Roy-Keenan Abercrombia

And even with COVID-19 having distinctly changed the way the organization can interface with the larger community, the group is determined to stay the course, continuing onward unified and synchronized in the face of the pandemic. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been staying true to what we do: Take care of the ranch and the horses so that when things get back to normal, we&rsquo;re able to provide the space the kids need to grow and learn,&rdquo; says Atkins. &ldquo;Outside of the Tommy campaign, which we had a lot of fun working on, we also have a <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/film-tv/movies-by-black-directors-black-history-month" target="_blank" rel="noopener">feature film</a> in development that is almost at the phase where the script is finalized,&rdquo; adds Hook. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re trying to be very intentional about using our platform to raise awareness about what we do. We&rsquo;ve gotten a lot of support from the entertainment industry and it&rsquo;s helped us use our platform to move forward. Our biggest mission is to be able to do the work we do in Compton all over the world. By the time the kids in our program get older we want to have ranches all over the world, and hopefully inspire others to do what we&rsquo;re doing in our community in theirs.&rdquo;

<div class="page" title="Page 5">
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 Cowboys photographed at their ranch wearing Tommy Hilfiger Spring/Summer 2021 throughout and in video. 
 GROOMING Brandon Reed and Shenick DP <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">Germano Assuncao <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">DIGI TECH <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">Dominic Escalante <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">PROPS <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">Daniel Horowitz AC&nbsp;Mike Leary STUDIO MANAGER Isaac Anthony PHOTO ASSISTANTS <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">Byron Nickelberry, Kendall Connorpack, and Vinnie Maggio STYLIST ASSISTANT <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">AJ Greene <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">PRODUCTION ASSISTANT <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">Hannah Lansill <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">PROPS ASSISTANT <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">Dylan Lynch
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From left—Kenneth: Jacket and jeans TOMMY HILFIGER Boots and hat KENNETH’S OWN. Roy-Keenan: Jacket, sweatshirt, and jeans TOMMY HILFIGER Boots and hat ROY-KEENAN’S OWN. Randall: Sweatshirt and jeans TOMMY HILFIGER Boots and hat RANDALL’S OWN.

How the Compton Cowboys are Building Community Through Horseback Riding in Los Angeles

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