(upbeat music) A few miles south on the lakefront, you'll find another oasis at the end of a long driveway: the South Shore Cultural Center.

Looking like a Mediterranean seaside resort, it was designed in 1916 by Benjamin Marshall of Drake Hotel Fame.

It's a popular spot to celebrate life's milestones.

In 1992, Michelle and Barack Obama had their wedding reception here.

It also offers golf, tennis, yoga classes and... Rodeo?

(upbeat music) (crowd cheers) Yes, there is rodeo on Chicago's lakefront.

The Broken Arrow Riding Club teaches equestrian skills, like barrel racing, to a younger generation of predominantly, though not exclusively, African Americans.

People like 13-year-old Riley Madison, she's been riding for years.

But this is her first rodeo.

Isn't it scary?

- It is scary.

Like I rode a horse today that I've never ridden before, and he's like known for being like a little crazy.

So it was good like that I didn't fall off.

But it can be like scary sometimes.

So you just gotta get over it, get it done, and then if you fall, get back up.

- With that winning attitude, Riley took home two medals.

She's under the tutelage of Broken Arrow's founder, Murdock, the man with no first name.

- [Murdock] Alright, LT's going to be up first.

- [Geoffrey] There's only one way to properly interview a legendary horseman like Murdock, even though my riding skills are, well, non-existent.

- See, I learned to ride in Washington Park as a kid and when I went away to the military and came back home, the stables where I learned to ride, they had all closed down.

And so I vowed to bring horseback riding back into the inner city at that particular time.

- The paddock was filled with riders and spectators when we visited, though many of these folks would've been unwelcome here a couple of generations ago.

So this beautiful facility was formed as a country club that did not allow Black people?

- Didn't allow Black or Hispanics over here at the time.

- Or Jews.

(horse shaking) - Or Jews.

- [Geoffrey Voiceover] Even my horse doesn't like the sound of that.

(horse snorts) When the club was founded in 1905, membership was for white Gentiles only.

This policy proved not only wrong, but foolish.

As the South Shore neighborhood grew increasingly Jewish and then Black, the club clung to its bigotry, sinking into decline and eventually closing in 1974.

The park district bought it and opened it to everyone a few years later.

- Now, instead of it called the country club, they turned it into the cultural center.

They gave an elegant name too, you know.

- But there's a little bit of redemption in that, isn't there, that, you know, now it's enjoyed by the people who weren't allowed to even set foot here.

- It is.

It is.

Well, I mean, just like life in general, you know, things take a turn and everybody has to have a turn, if you wanna call it that.

So it's what we make of it when we do get that opportunity or our turn.

I mean, as you notice, nobody here had any friction with anybody.

Everybody seemed to enjoy it themselves.

I'm thankful for what we have.

I really am.

(crowd cheers) (upbeat music)