George Fletcher was a pioneering African American rodeo rider. He was born in 1890 in Saint Marys, Kansas, to unnamed parents. His family later moved west on the Oregon Trail and settled near Pendleton, Oregon. During his early life, Fletcher worked with horses on nearby ranches and on the Umatilla Indian Reservation in northeast Oregon. He entered his first rodeo at the age of 16.
In 1911, Fletcher competed at the Pendleton Round-Up for a world championship in bronco riding, becoming the first African American to do so. The competition included three riders: Fletcher, John Spain, and Jackson Sundown, a member of the Nez Perce tribe. Sundown rode first but was injured when his horse collided with a judge’s horse, forcing him to withdraw. Spain rode second and bucked across the arena, crashing through a wooden fence. Fletcher rode last. Although his first horse did not buck, his second ride impressed the crowd and received loud applause.
The judges awarded first place to Spain, second place to Fletcher, and last place to Sundown. However, the crowd strongly disagreed with the decision and declared Fletcher the true winner, the “People’s Champion.” According to witnesses, the audience became so enraged that they began dismantling the grandstand plank by plank. To calm the crowd, Sheriff Til Taylor tore Fletcher’s hat into pieces and distributed them as souvenirs.
George Fletcher at the Pendleton Roundup, 1911 (OSU Special Collections & Archives)
Despite his talent, Fletcher was often barred from competing in major rodeos due to racism. Many white cowboys refused to compete against him. Nevertheless, he continued to perform in exhibitions, riding broncs, bulls, and even buffalos in Pendleton. He also served briefly in World War I.
After the war, Fletcher resumed his career as a cowboy and rodeo performer in Oregon. In 1969, he was inducted into the inaugural class of the Pendleton Round-Up Hall of Fame. He died in 1973 at the age of 83. In 2001, he was posthumously inducted into the National Rodeo Hall of Fame and in 2014, the city of Pendleton honored him with a bronze statue by artist Jerry Werner, the first statue of an African American in the city. In 2019, children’s author Vaunda Micheaux Nelson published Let ‘Er Buck!: George Fletcher, the People’s Champion, a picture book celebrating his life. Three years later, in 2021, the city of Pendleton honored him again when it unveiled a mural in his honor.
