Horse racing also was among the city’s most popular sports, and by the 1930s, Chicago boasted more horse racing venues than any other metropolitan area in the US, thanks to its legal gambling laws. Until the 1950s, dozens of livery stables rented horses by the hour for recreational riding along the more than 17 miles of bridle paths that stretched along Lake Michigan and through Chicago parks. But as the city and automobile traffic grew, recreational horse riding’s popularity sank. The last city-sponsored public riding stable, Lincoln Park’s New Parkway Riding Stables, closed in 1967.
But for the past 31 years, Murdock has been working to revive the Windy City’s horse-riding heritage and make it more inclusive for the city’s diverse residents. Currently located in the city’s southern suburb of Chicago Heights, his Broken Arrow Horseback Riding Club is beloved by Chicago’s black cowboys, who compete in the local Latting Rodeo just outside Chicago as well as national rodeos across the US. At 73, Murdock hasn’t hung up his cowboy hat either. “I was involved in calf and tie-down roping for a while, until I injured my back,” he said. “I still compete locally in Latting Rodeos, doing the less dangerous events, barrel and flag racing.”
Murdock, who chooses to only go by his surname, adding to his cowboy mystique, grew up in Chicago’s predominantly African American South Side. He began riding as a boy at the city’s 380-acre Washington Park, which once had its very own public riding stable. “My dad owned a little printing shop nearby and in return for my helping him out on occasion, he paid for my riding lessons,” he said.
Amy BizzarriThough the popular narrative and imagery of the American West often ignores African American cowboys, historians estimate that one in four cowboys were black. Black horsemen weren’t only confined to the Wild West either. The American Black Cowboy Association held its first black rodeo in 1971, in Harlem, New York City. In Philadelphia, the Fletcher Street Urban Riding Club, the inspiration behind the 2020 Netflix movie Concrete Cowboy starring Idris Elba, has been promoting black horsemanship for more than 100 years, raising awareness by simply riding through the city streets and parks and hosting regular races in Fairmount Park.
