The very existence of Boley, and other towns like it, proved what was then—in many white people’s minds—a radical proposition: that Black people could thrive on their own. Booker T. Washington visited the town in 1905 and marveled at its two colleges, its abundance of land. Unlike in other Black communities in America at the time, many of which struggled, the original guarantee of citizenship and property rights in Boley under the 1866 treaty gave citizens a measure of security and wealth to pass on. Even decades after Boley’s founding, the allure of freedom and the ability to own the land under their feet drew Black families—including Ekuban’s Mississippian parents—from across the South.
The exact origins of the Boley Rodeo are lost to time, although we do know that it likely arose organically from local customs that predated the town itself. Rodeo, descended from practices established by Spanish and Mexican ranchers, had been molded into its modern form through the participation of Black cowboys, and Boley’s iteration formalized it locally as an event. Even in its early days, the Boley Rodeo regularly drew spectators of all races from Oklahoma and elsewhere, and inspired several other rodeos across the South and the West. One year, Joe Louis, the legendary boxer, made an appearance. The rodeo was always an important source of income for the town.
The 1960s marked the heyday of both Boley and its famous rodeo. According to The Black Dispatch, a newspaper in Oklahoma City, at least 10,000 people attended the event in 1961. The rodeo that year featured acts such as Billy “The Kid” Emerson, a Black rock-and-roll pioneer, and a full orchestra from Houston. In 1963, the same newspaper noted the growth in the “small Negro metropolis,” marked by the five new businesses that had sprung up on Main Street.
But as has been the trend in much of rural America—particularly Black rural America—Boley has suffered from the loss of capital and the gravitational pull of city life. In recent decades, many young people left in search of opportunities elsewhere, and the elders who remained struggled to keep the memory of the old days alive. Boley’s self-reliance had been lauded by white politicians and business executives, but when the town struggled, they lost interest, leaving it to wither.
Over time, the rodeo faded as well. Before Ekuban pitched her plan, it seemed possible that the rodeo might disappear entirely, and that—in a state where history books rarely mention places like Boley—the history might disappear too. Even with Ekuban’s intervention, there are no guarantees.