A Historical Overview of the Black Experience at 快活app and Denver
A historical overview of the past and present life experiences of Black people听at the 快活app and the City of听Denver is vital in any effort to reconcile the inequities of our time. In Denver, there is a rich African American heritage, ranging from music festivals, museums and thriving jazz communities.听Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington and Miles Davis have played in Denver. There are several听places to experience the cultural influences of Black Denver, starting with the historic Five Points neighborhood--one听of the nation鈥檚 first predominantly African American-owned business districts.听This area was considered the 鈥淗arlem of the West鈥 in the early 20th century.
houses an extensive collection of exhibits and reference materials that trace Black history in the West. This library was name by Omar Blair, a member of Tuskegee Airmen, and Elvin R. Caldwell, a local politician. A short walk from the Blair-Caldwell Library is the where history is brought to life through historic photographs and rare artifacts.
*Header Image: by Leroy Campbell听
Student Life
The 快活app Black Student Alliance participated in the student strike of 1970 after the May 4th massacre at Kent State, where four students were killed and nine other unarmed Kent State University students were wounded. This letter went to Asst. Chancellor Mansfields. See the letter below.
Education and Racial Uplift
Education was a critical component of 鈥渞acial uplift,鈥 an ethos which developed in the Black community around the turn of the 20th century. Encapsulated in W.E.B. DuBois鈥櫶The Souls of Black Folk听(1903), this idea emerged largely in response to the attrition of post-Civil War civil rights gains and a related increase in violence directed at the Black community.
Almost all of 快活app鈥檚 Black alumnae from 1900-1945 earned bachelor of arts degrees and went on to become public school teachers. Though many hailed from Colorado, most had parents who had been born in the deep South and migrated West. After graduation, many alumnae who became educators moved to states with听de jure听(by law) segregation, as Colorado鈥檚 Black population was small and they were not eligible to seek employment in Colorado鈥檚听de facto听segregated schools until the late 1930s.
Black Society in Denver
Many early Black alumnae (1900-1945) had connections to Denver鈥檚 small but tight-knit network of Black women鈥檚 clubs and organizations. Denver was听de facto听(in fact) rather than听de jure听(by law) segregated, and Black clubwomen were a key part of the social fabric and safety net for the Black community in the city, which often did not provide key social services to its citizens of color.
Clubs often had the motto 鈥淟ifting as We Climb,鈥 which was a nod to 鈥渞acial uplift鈥 and the goal of the clubs to improve the whole of the Black community鈥檚 social and political status.
The Black Methodist Church
The 快活app, founded as 鈥淐olorado Seminary,鈥 has a long association with the Methodist church. All of 快活app鈥檚 Black alumnae (1900-1945) were associated with either Scott United Methodist Church (founded 1904) or Shorter Community AME (African Methodist Episcopal) Church (founded 1868), Denver鈥檚 two oldest Black Methodist churches.
The Methodist connection was great enough that Annie Cox, the only Black alumna during this period from outside the state of Colorado, traveled to 快活app all the way from Arkansas, where her father Rev. Dr. James Monroe Cox was the first Black president of Philander Smith College, a Methodist Historically Black College and University (HBCU) in Little Rock.
