“I would come even if I got paid,” he said. Every year he has dressed up as a buffalo soldier, a name coined for an African-American regiment of the U.S. Taylor, dressed in a blue uniform with a long silver sword hanging from his left side, a yellow handkerchief tied around his neck and a cowboy hat, has now participated in the OBCA parade for six years. “I thought to myself, ‘What can I do to be a part of this next year?’” “The parade brought the excitement back - that wonder - this is history,” he said. In 2002, Taylor was working as a parole officer and was assigned to be on-duty at the parade, but once he arrived he was just excited to be part of it. Taylor said there are not enough police officers to help with the parade and funding cannot pull police officers off their beat in another area to help with the parade. Titus Taylor, 50, from Oakland, is a police evidence technician and volunteered at the parade, although he is not a member of the OBCA.
“We are in a terrible financial situation.” The parade, which is every first Saturday of October, usually lopes from 14 th Street to Broadway, but this year the parade marched around just the perimeter of the park. The city also could not fund enough police officers to patrol the blocked-off streets of the parade. But the love of being on a horse is the same to all of them.Īlthough the city of Oakland has usually funded the parade in previous years, budget cuts this year forced the OBCA to fund the entire parade and festival, at a cost of $1,200. The Oakland organization consists of 43 members, who are different ages and have different family history of different backgrounds. The history of the black cowboys is not well known, but according to some historians, African-Americans made up one-fourth of the cowboys in the West after the Civil War. Since 1975, the Oakland Black Cowboy Association, a nonprofit that teaches the public about African-Americans’ contributions to the Old West, has sponsored a parade to show the community something of their organization. “I think it’s important for the kids to understand you are a part of history.” “We just happen to be black, but we’re Americans, and we played an important part in the movement of the west, for this country,” said Wilbert McAllister, 68, president of the OBCA. With the city skyline and tall buildings in the foreground, black cowboys just didn’t seem to fit into the Oakland atmosphere. There was no hay or dirt, and the only grass was from DeFremery Park, where other cowboys and cowgirls were setting up the festival. Men and women pulled their horses out of their trailers, fixed their sons’ and daughters’ cowboy hats and made their way to the starting point of the parade. In the city atmosphere of downtown, on Saturday, members of the Oakland Black Cowboy Association (OBCA) celebrated their history with the community. Check.Īt midday yesterday, between industrial buildings and houses on 18 th Street and Adeline Street in downtown Oakland, were cowboys. Rhinestone belt with large horse medallion.