1 IN 4 COWBOYS WERE BLACK
Hollywood erased them. History books ignored them. Schools never taught you about them.
But Bass Reeves arrested 3,000 criminals. Bill Pickett invented bulldogging. Black jockeys won the first 15 Kentucky Derbies.
The cowboy story starts in Africa — with cavalry kings who ruled empires before America existed.
ENDORSED BY THE BEST
THE "EDUCATED HOOD RAT"
Louis C. Hook bridges worlds others never could. From Harbor City housing projects to Harvard Business School, then back to Compton’s streets—he’s lived the full spectrum of Black America. For over 30 years, he’s worked alongside his sister bringing horses to at-risk youth, watching Hollywood’s lies about cowboys hurt Black children who never saw themselves as heroes.
From the Projects to Harvard to the Hood
Born in Harbor City housing projects, Louis earned his way from Occidental College to MIT’s PhD program to Harvard Business School. But in 1992, he chose to return to the hood—moving to Compton to help his sister bring horses to at-risk youth.
Watching “The Woman King” in 2022, Louis saw African cavalry for the first time and shouted “That’s not true!” His shock led to research that uncovered a massive cover-up spanning centuries—the systematic erasure of Black equestrian mastery.
“The most shocking discovery wasn’t just that Black cowboys existed—it was that African empires with cavalry forces ruled the world during the Islamic Golden Age. The Moors controlled Spain for 800 years. Mali was the wealthiest empire in world history. These weren’t just good riders—they were the best horse trainers, breeders, and warriors on Earth.”
“When slave ships brought Africans to America, they brought this knowledge. Plantation owners paid extra for enslaved people who knew horses. The American cowboy story starts in Africa—but they erased that truth.”
INSIDE "BLACK IN THE SADDLE"
- 1 : The Great African Cavalries
- 2 : African Equestrian Mastery Before the Atlantic Slave Trade
- 3 : The Fall of African Empires and the Enslavement of Their People
- 4 : Horses on the Plantation
- 5 : Westward Expansion and the Emergence of the Black Cowboy
- 6 : Legendary Status - Black People Who Helped Tame the West
- 7 : The Marginalization of Black Cowboys
- 8 : The Urban Cowboy Movement - From Harlem to Compton
- 9 : The Compton Cowboys - A Modern Renaissance
Ep. 139 - Compton Cowboys (Louis C. Hook)
“Author Louis C. Hook, also known as “the Educated Hood Rat,” joins us to discuss his new book, Black in the Saddle, which traces the legacy of black horsemanship from African cavalry empires to the rise of black cowboys in the American West and the riders carrying that tradition forward today. Louis and host Connie Morgan explore the history that was erased and the powerful resurgence of black equestrian culture in the modern era.”