This archive report was first published on 1 July 2020.
On a fateful day in late May, as protests against police brutality swept across American cities, a video of a Black man on horseback wearing a bulletproof vest went viral on social media. The man, later identified as Adam Hollingsworth, a 33-year-old Chicagoan, was falsely accused of stealing a policeman's horse.
However, Hollingsworth is no thief. He owns four horses, including Prince, the one featured in the video, and rides them around the city, where he is known as the Dreadhead Cowboy.
'You have to have some kind of experience to get on a horse to ride it,' Hollingsworth said in a phone interview. 'And, he added, 'if you steal a police horse, it's like kidnapping a police officer. You can't just get up and steal a police horse.'
As the false accusations piled up, Hollingsworth's car was vandalized, and he received death threats. The experience reinforced for him the importance of his mission: to expand people's ideas about Black masculinity and promote unity in Chicago's racially segregated neighborhoods.
According to a 2019 analysis by the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, Woodlawn, Hollingsworth's hometown, is a majority-Black neighborhood with nearly 83% of its residents identifying as Black.
Hollingsworth's journey to becoming the Dreadhead Cowboy began after he was released from prison in adulthood, following a wrongful conviction for gun possession in 2006. He was 19 years old at the time and had been riding with someone who had a gun in the car.
'I don't play with guns,' Hollingsworth said. 'I'm not that kind of guy.'
After serving one month in Cook County Jail, Hollingsworth pleaded guilty and was released on probation. Upon his release, he focused on staying out of trouble and finding a job, but with a criminal record, this became a daunting task.
He began working as an exotic dancer in 2010 and bought his first horse, Wi-Fi, nine years later for $800 during a period of severe depression. 'My horse was my therapy,' he said.
Over time, one horse became four, and Hollingsworth keeps them in a barn at his uncle's house in Crete, a suburb of Chicago. He brings them out to the city almost every day, as long as the weather cooperates.
During the pandemic, Hollingsworth began riding around Chicago's Black and Latino communities to bring joy to residents, especially young children. 'I didn't have my father in my life,' he said. 'To have a kid say I'm their hero, it melts my heart.'
His son, Akil, 12, has begun referring to himself as the Dreadhead Cowboy Jr. Some adults have told him it is their first time seeing a horse in real life.
'You've never seen a horse in the hood,' Hollingsworth said.
He is now harnessing his growing fame to give back to his community. 'I'm trying to put a barn in the city,' he said, specifically in Woodlawn. Already, he has raised more than half of his $50,000 goal on GoFundMe.
