True Grit: The Cowboys of Philadelphia
The true story of the real life riders that inspired Netflix’s Concrete Cowboy
“Who the fuck is John Wayne? My name is John, I’m John Wayne,” a young Black man scoffs as he leads a horse down the streets of North Philadelphia in Mohammed Bourouissa’s film Horse Day.
Six stables stand tucked away on a block of aging row houses. They’re patched together with plywood, attached to a vacant building. Folding chairs and chickens scatter the lot, tucked under awnings made of blue tarps. Across, boys and girls of all ages ride and tend to horses in a large lot. Once a month, the community holds a showcase here where riders dress their horses up in intricate, homemade outfits and race one another. Many are quick to describe the stables as dilapidated and makeshift, but they are the true spirit of Philly’s DIY scene: something crafted with care and uniquely its own.
Over the last decade, Philadelphia’s Point Breeze and Kensington neighborhoods have joined America’s most gentrified zip codes. North Philadelphia’s Strawberry Mansion has been fighting gentrification catalyzed by Temple University for years. Student housing and detrimental city mandates threaten the survival of community groups like those stables, home to Fletcher Street Urban Riding Club (FSURC), a Black-founded and -operated horseback riding club which provides mentorship for children by teaching them the long tradition of urban equestrianism.
The club has become a staple in Philadelphia’s culture, both pop and actual. From murals to promotional sports packages, to prime-time commercials, the Fletcher Street riders are often referenced to connotate a certain insight into modern Philly. Much like dirt bikes and cheesesteaks, urban riders have become a key part of what makes Philadelphia… Philadelphia.
Ellis Ferrell Jr. has overseen the stables and the community surrounding them since 2004. A Tennessee transplant, the 81-year-old grew his stables by giving pony rides to neighborhood children. He’s poured his heart, soul, and own money into this project. The club runs a work-to-ride program for neighborhood kids, giving them the opportunity to learn responsibility and form emotional bonds with the animals. The club provides physical and emotional therapy to children affected by generational trauma and systematic racism. “It enables a sense of empowerment to the disenfranchised and those living in communities of hopelessness,” Ferrell shares on the FSURC website.
Despite all the club has contributed to the community and the city, and despite all the press it has attracted, Fletcher Street remains in constant danger of closing.
A Centuries Long Tradition
Hollywood sold the image of the ideal cowboy as John Wayne for decades, but cowboys have historically been people of color.
“Right after the Civil War, being a cowboy was one of the few jobs open to men of color who wanted to not serve as elevator operators or delivery boys or other similar occupations,” writes author and African American history scholar William Loren Katz. “Facing discrimination in the Southern towns they passed through, many of the cowboys made their way up north in search of more opportunities.”
Horses played a critical role in Philadelphia’s growth and development as a major industrial city. The expansion of railroad networks in the 1850s lead to a dramatic increase in the use of horses and horse drawn carriages. Although the American west usually comes to mind when thinking of horses, most American cities had large, concentrated populations of horses well into the twentieth century, especially the Northeast. Someone living in nineteenth century Philadelphia would have encountered more horses than a cowboy in Montana. While railroads spurred on urban growth, horses pulled most of the weight, providing a large chunk of the transportation of people and circulation of goods. As late as the 1950s, individual vendors sold meat, produce, and other goods from horse-drawn wagons. Milk delivery services used horses for a long time because the horses memorized the route and moved the wagons from house to house as the milkman walked back and forth making deliveries. Even after industrialization began to phase out the need for horses as transportation, neighborhoods outside the city still relied on the animals.
The counties of Philadelphia became known as horse country. Though late to legalize horse racing, Pennsylvania’s history has deep ties to both thoroughbred and harness racing. Philadelphia society had a long history and involvement with thoroughbreds, including one of the greatest racehorses of all times, Man O’ War. Several horse stables remained within the city limits, like Chamounix Equestrian Center, which was built in Fairmount Park in 1973 to house the then-rapidly growing mounted police force. Ellis Ferrell worked with some of Philly’s other riding clubs, like Boulevard Stablemates in the 1970s and Brewerytown Riding Club in the 1980s.
“Hoof Beats on Fletcher Street”
In 2005, LIFE magazine ran a cover story about the FSURC, featuring photographs taken by Texas-based photographer Martha Camarillo. Camarillo described the club as “something very special and raw.”
In 2006, Camarillo published a 128-page collection of portraits simply titled “Fletcher Street”. Filled with four months’ worth of portraits, her photographs forced viewers to confront their own preconceptions of sports and leisure representing social status and race as a demarcation of class. The book directly inspired author G Neri to seek out more information about FSURC and pen the nonfiction book Ghetto Cowboy. Fletcher Street quickly became an attraction. The club was featured in The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, and an episode of NPR’s This American Life. Photographer and artist Mohammed Bourouissa spent eight months in 2014 documenting the club. He exhibited photographs, drawings and two short films in a completed work at the Paris Museum of Modern Art. The exhibit featured 85 works that include photos, sculptures, drawings and a short film and ran for four months at the Paris Museum of Modern Art.
And just last month, Netflix released a feature length film titled “Concrete Cowboy”. Based mainly around Ghetto Cowboy’s narrative and themes, the film stars Calen McLaughlin as Cole, a troubled teen who goes to live with his estranged father Harp, played by Idris Elba. While the story itself is entirely fictional, the film does include members of the FSURC and sought out members to advise and help out with production.
“I’m known all over the world and I haven’t seen a dime…”
Despite all this exposure, Fletcher Street continues to be in constant danger of closing. Ferrell says he’s known all over the world, that artists and journalists come to his stables and shoot videos and pictures and go back to their countries where they win awards, but he never sees a dime. In following the long-standing American tradition of helping yourself before others, people — even ostensibly well-intentioned people like artists trying to showcase this unique oasis in an unlikely location — tend to profit off Fletcher Street and then leave, offering no help to an organization clearly in need. After filming wrapped, instead of directing attention to Fletcher Street’s fund, director Ricky Staub set up his own crowdfunding campaign. The club released a statement distancing themselves from this campaign, fearing public confusion and backlash, afraid they would appear disingenuous. On top of that, thousands of dollars flooded into other riding clubs around Philadelphia because of name confusion.
That leaves Fletcher Street once again facing eviction. Months after the club was founded, their Brewerytown stables were seized through eminent domain. The urgent need to relocate forced the club to build makeshift stables on the Fletcher Street lot. SPCA raids were called in 2004 and 2008. Media outlets flooded the stables, claiming reports of animal abuse and filthy living conditions. Both times, the animals were returned when veterinary analysis found them to be healthy — but local news camera crews did not cover that story, nor did they clarify that earlier reports of abuse were unfounded.
The Philadelphia Land Bank periodically sells the hundreds of lots they own around the city for as low as $1. These lot sales are supposed to benefit the communities they’re in, but more often than not they’re sold to developers to who build upscale condos. The Land Bank recently purchased the lot across from Fletcher Street, the lot they use for grazing, riding and racing, and have slated it to become “affordable housing for seniors”.
This form of gentrification, zoning, and targeting will continue to scrub away neighborhood culture unless people begin to take notice and action. History and communities cannot continue to be whitewashed and erased. The film touches on the subject but the creators have done nothing to help the communities in need.
The future of the FSURC being at risk means history is at risk, it means Black self-expression is at risk. Like the statues of white men on horses all around the city, the Fletcher Street Urban Riders are just as much a part of Philadelphia’s culture. Black creatives and their history should be free to exist even after the cameras are gone.
You can help support the club and donate here.
