Horses and Hellcats and riders with colorful boots and hats filled DeFremery Park in West Oakland on Sat. Oct. 4 for the 51st annual Black Cowboy Parade & Festival, celebrating Oakland’s Black cowboy culture.
Visitors parked blocks away as cars, horse trailers, and motorcycles packed the park. Black cowboys sitting high on their horses greeted attendees. Some wore cowboy hats, others baseball caps. The stallions, mares, and colts dressed up too. Some wore braids in their manes or had decorated saddles.
Children lined up for horseback rides while blues music flowed from the stage, layered with the beat of African drumming played by an elder in a wide-brimmed Non la…