Boley Rodeo and Bar-B-Que Festival

Held over Memorial Day weekend since the 1960s, the Boley Rodeo is one of the longest-running Black rodeos in the United States, drawing competitors and spectators from across Oklahoma and beyond. The event includes professional rodeo competition — bull riding, barrel racing, roping — alongside live music, barbecue, and the kind of community gathering that has given the town a reason to celebrate its heritage each year.

For visitors interested in Black history and Western heritage, the rodeo is one of the most authentic such events in the country. It's also simply a good rodeo, run by people who know what they're doing. If you're planning a visit to Boley, timing it around Memorial Day weekend will give you a much livelier town than the one you'd find on an ordinary weekday.

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The Boley Rodeo tradition predates the modern annual event by decades — Black cowboys were an integral part of the Oklahoma cattle industry from the earliest settlement era, and rodeo culture was deeply embedded in the community long before it became a formal festival. The event is a reminder that the American cowboy tradition was far more racially diverse than popular culture has generally acknowledged.