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Craig Lewis of the Buffalo Soldiers of Seattle prepares Rabbit the horse before the Oakland Black Cowboy Association parade and festival at DeFremery Park. The Buffalo Soldiers joined this year’s festivities, along with several local youth sports teams and women’s organizations.

Cheerleaders from the Berkeley Junior Jackets football team perform during the Oakland Black Cowboy Association parade.

Equestrians prepare their horses along the 18th Street route before the Oakland Black Cowboy Association parade.

Red Hat Society Queen Mother Carolyn Wimberly takes a photo of Jean Taylor, Carolyn Taylor and Bonnie King before the start of the parade.

A leather Black Lives Matter neck decoration is worn by the horse of Vaquero roper Pete Taylor during the Oakland Black Cowboy Parade at DeFremery Park in Oakland on Saturday.

Horses, lassos and cowboy hats aplenty arrived in West Oakland on Saturday for the 48th Oakland Black Cowboy Association parade and festival, which returned after a two-year pandemic hiatus.

The event at DeFremery Park drew hundreds of attendees and kicked off with a parade of horseback riders and student performers. Afterward, a few dozen vendors displayed clothing, jewelry and art for sale, along with food tents offering catfish, chicken wings and hot dogs.

Kids were invited to sit in the saddle of a horse for photos and learned how to swing a lasso at plastic cattle heads mounted on a wooden body.

Vaquero roper Pete Taylor, right, demonstrates use of a lasso to Bryson Scott, 4, at the Oakland Black Cowboy Parade at DeFremery Park in Oakland on Saturday.

The mood was festive and family-friendly, but the Oakland Black Cowboy Association has a more serious mission: educating the public about the often overlooked role of Black men who tended to cattle herds in Western history.

Wilbert McAlister, who has been president of the association for around 20 years, said in an interview that the term “cowboy” itself has roots in slavery, similar to how plantation workers were called “field boys” and home servants were called “house boys.”

According to some estimates, 25% of cowboys were Black, many of them former slaves who sought new lives on the western frontier.

McAlister grew up in Madera and has family from Texas. But while he was a longtime fan of Western culture, he didn’t realize the history behind Black cowboys until the 1990s, when he was introduced to the association, which dates to 1974 and now has about 15 members.

Not all of the members have horses — McAlister didn’t have one until 2004 — but they share a bond around education and outreach.

Last year, McAlister was the subject of a documentary simply titled “Cowboy.”

A young equestrian takes a ride during the Oakland Black Cowboy Parade at DeFremery Park in Oakland on Saturday.

Turnout this year was lower than pre-pandemic levels and the parade was smaller, but McAlister was still pleased to connect with the community. “Seeing people bring their kids here ... it’s great,” he said.

The festivities continued into the evening, as live music filled the area from a stage surrounded by bales of hay.

Patricia Lowe, head of the Chocolate Platinum Soul Line Dancers, was excited to perform at the event for the first time in three years.

Her group, which includes R&B, gospel and jazz dancing, doesn’t have a direct link to cowboys. But Lowe grew up around the park, has been attending the event for years, and appreciates the positive energy it brings.

“It’s gotten better,” she said. “It’s a day of fun.”

Roland Li is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: roland.li@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rolandlisf

Roland Li covers commercial real estate for the business desk, focusing on the Bay Area office and retail sectors.

He was previously a reporter at San Francisco Business Times, where he won one award from the California News Publishers Association and three from the National Association of Real Estate Editors.

He is the author of "Good Luck Have Fun: The Rise of eSports," a 2016 book on the history of the competitive video game industry. Before moving to the Bay Area in 2015, he studied and worked in New York. He freelanced for the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and other local publications. His hobbies include swimming and urban photography.