Oakland Black Cowboy Association gets ‘Boots on the Ground’

Wild West attire, live music and camaraderie are all trademarks of Oakland’s iconic Black Cowboy parade and festival.

The annual events, hosted by the Oakland Black Cowboy Association (OBCA) on Oct. 4, brought hundreds of Western enthusiasts to DeFremery Park. The festivities almost didn’t leave the stables this year because of financial issues, leading the OBCA to solicit its first-ever GoFundMe call for donations.

Now OBCA staff say they are looking into different ways to raise money and doing everything they can to ensure locals have access to future events celebrating Black cowboy culture.

“We were able to put on a fabulous parade and festival, but it’s still a long way to go,” OBCA volunteer Jessica Smith said. “We’re actively moving forward to continue to grow the organization.”

Upcoming OBCA events include an appreciation dinner for donors on Nov. 22. A few family days are also on the horizon, but the details and dates haven’t been sent yet, according to Vice President Debra Lawson.

Recently the OBCA’s beloved Shetland pony, Michael Jackson, passed away. Jackson gave rides to children at school and community events, and helped the association fundraise. Lawson said they are raising funds to buy a new one.

Founded in 1976, the OBCA hosts local educational workshops and community events to honor the history of Black cowboys and cowgirls. The nonprofit is volunteer-run and frequently collaborates with small businesses, schools and cultural organizations. Its funding comes from a mix of local sponsors and community donations.

The OBCA is well-known for keeping the cowboy culture going year-round in the region. This month marks the 51st celebration of its parade and festival, which always takes place in West Oakland.

In August however, the association faced a roughly $20,000 financial shortfall after the group’s former president allegedly mismanaged funds. In an effort to keep the event going, OBCA launched a GoFundMe page. With the help of 533 donations, the OBCA managed to raise $32,785 of their listed $50,000 goal.

Lawson and Smith declined to go into details about the reasons behind the loss of funding. The fundraiser description states the OBCA is going through “serious financial hardships and lost its entire budget” weeks before the festival was scheduled to take place. The association noted it was also seeking legal resources.

Lawson said the OBCA is thankful for the outpouring of community support, and amazed at how funds were raised in such a short amount of time.

“We would have probably still tried to put forward, but it probably would have been a struggle,” she said.

The parade portion started in the morning, where participants circled around Oakland’s Market, 18th, Union and Eighth streets. The festival followed the event, offering people the opportunity to enjoy a variety of activities including live music, dancing, a fashion show, and pony and horse rides. Eventgoers hail mostly from The Town, but people come from all over the Bay Area and California. One traveled all the way from Washington, D.C., to check out the event, Lawson said.

The theme for this year’s festivities was “Boots on the Ground,” a phrase that refers to different people being present together and actively working to achieve a specific goal. Smith said the theme was fitting given OBCA’s recent circumstances.

“From overcoming dire significant hardship to being lifted up by the community and having what was one of our best parades and festivals to date … it was really exciting,” Smith said. “There were smiles on people’s faces all day long.”

FOUNDED IN 1976 The Oakland Black Cowboy Association hosts local educational workshops and community events to honor the history of Black cowboys and cowgirls. (Photo courtesy of Jessica Smith)

Smith and Lawson said the OBCA focuses on encouraging children to get involved with cowboy culture. During the October festival, the OBCA created a children’s area where kids could visit a petting zoo, get their faces painted, and ride a mechanical bull and horse.

Lawson emphasized the importance for the younger generations to understand the history of Black cowboys and carry on their legacy.

Black cowboys were a prominent, yet marginalized, group in the American West. They are estimated to have made up 20-25% of the total cowboy population during the late 19th century. The cowboys and girls were known for their skills in roping, branding and saddling up cattle. Their contributions were largely watered down in media and literary depictions of the Old West, which often portrayed cowboys as being exclusively white. 

Today, only a handful of organizations in California work to preserve their history. They include the Urban Saddles in South Gate and the Compton Cowboys in Compton, as well as the Wilton Riders in Sacramento.

The OBCA is the only organization of its kind in the Bay Area, though the region hosts other events that honor the legacy of Black cowboys, including The Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo, the longest-running Black rodeo in the U.S. Hundreds of locals attended the invitational rodeo event over the summer in Oakland.

Smith and Lawson say they look forward to meeting children who come to OBCA’s events, and teaching them about the organization’s mission and values.

“We really want to be able to connect with the younger generation and plant the seeds,” Smith said. “We want them to know that they can be a part of the organization and be a part of the community.”