West Oakland’s DeFremery Park fills with cowboy hats, dancing horses and the smell of festival food this Saturday as the Oakland Black Cowboy Association stages its 52nd annual parade and festival, a free, family-friendly tradition that has survived pandemic shutdowns and recent financial scares to keep riding on.
The parade lines up at 9 a.m. and begins at 10 a.m. on Oct. 3, running through 6 p.m. at 1651 Adeline Street, according to sf.funcheap.com. As The Mercury News notes, the procession winds through city streets past ordinary West Oakland traffic, cars and Lime scooters alike, before the crowd settles in for a heritage festival built around pony rides, line dancing, youth activities and food and local vendors.
A Legacy Rooted In An Overlooked History
The Oakland Black Cowboy Association describes its own mission plainly: it was created to bring the hidden stories of Black cowboys and cowgirls into the spotlight, according to the organization’s own about-us page. Through storytelling, education, and events, the group says, “we aim to inspire pride, preserve history, and strengthen our community.” That mission points back to a genuine historical gap: historians estimate that one in four cowboys were Black during the era of the great Western cattle drives, per Smithsonian Magazine.
After the Civil War, ranchers were compelled to hire now-free, skilled African Americans as paid cowhands, the outlet reports, and those riders often found a level of respect and equality within their crews that eluded them in nearby towns. That era faded by the turn of the century as cattle drives ended, but the memory of who actually rode the range has taken decades to work its way into the mainstream story of the American West.
Founding Date Disputed, Roots Go Back Decades
Exactly when the organization began depends on which account you read. The San Francisco Chronicle has reported that the association was founded in 1976 by Lonnie Scoggins, while an earlier Chronicle piece placed its roots back to 1974. Either way, the celebration has continued annually since, aside from a two-year pause during the pandemic, the paper’s reporting notes…