Long before the height of the civil rights movement, something rare was starting in the Colorado mountains. Nestled in Gilpin County, “a Black utopia” thrived for nearly four decades in the form of a mountain resort built by African Americans, for African Americans — the only of its kind west of the Mississippi. Operating between […]
History Colorado
Posted inCulture
From cheeseburgers to Ma Barker’s boy, heavyweight boxers and bears, Colorado has no shortage of roadside attractions
Probably once a week, a client wanders into the Key Bank branch on Speer Boulevard, just west of Interstate 25 in Denver, and while taking care of financial matters ultimately veers the conversation to … cheeseburgers. Specifically, they want to talk about the Humpty Dumpty Barrel Drive-In, the first eatery of its kind in the […]
Posted inColoradans
For the first time, Colorado has a Latina state historian. Here’s what Nicki Gonzales hopes to accomplish.
On Sunday — Colorado Day, marking the state’s 145th birthday — Nicki Gonzales will become the official state historian, and the first Latino person to assume the role. Gonzales, a professor of history and vice provost for diversity and inclusion at Regis University, will serve a one-year term, succeeding historian and author Duane Vandenbusche. Gonzales […]
Posted inNews
Ku Klux Klan membership records made public in Denver
History Colorado has debuted an online archive of 1,300 pages of original Ku Klux Klan membership records from 1924 through 1926, previously on public display at the History Colorado Center in downtown Denver. History Colorado digitized the hate group’s ledgers, which include about 30,000 entries, to highlight the widespread racism built into the city’s political […]
Posted inBusiness, Coloradans, COVID, Education, News
Reimagining Denver’s Livestock Exchange Building means respecting its distinctive past
Back when Denver was a true cowtown and well over half a million cattle, sheep, hogs and horses moved through the city’s bustling livestock center each year, the Livestock Exchange Building was the grand red-brick heart of the city’s agricultural industry. With an $8.5 million sale that was finalized Monday, that ornate, turn-of-the-20th-century building is […]
Posted inNews
History Colorado unveils the toppled Union soldier statue with an exhibit that seeks to tell its story. Its whole story.
The conversation started almost immediately. Three women, visitors to History Colorado’s downtown museum, happened by the statue of a Union soldier that had been defaced and pulled off its pedestal during a stretch of racial equality protests months ago in Denver. They quickly read several very different interpretations — representing historians, veterans, indigenous tribes and […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: When it comes to COVID and the economy, history need not repeat itself
This is a unique moment in American history, for the nation is grappling simultaneously with a pandemic and an economic catastrophe. The study of past pandemics and economic collapses offers valuable lessons on how to deal with the current crises. As the cliché goes, to be forewarned is to be forearmed. In the case of […]
Posted inColoradans, News
When the Union soldier fell at the Colorado Capitol, it may have started a chain reaction
When the statue of a Union soldier that stood on the west side of the state Capitol was toppled and defaced by protesters in June, it did more than reignite a long-running conversation about public monuments and their meaning. It also started a chain reaction that could add new dimension and additional context to the […]
Posted inOpinion
In 1963, America didn’t listen to the “language of the unheard.” We can’t afford to fail this time.
Colorado’s Living History is a regular feature in The Colorado Sun, in collaboration with History Colorado, showcasing opinion pieces by members of the State Historian’s Council that connect history with current events. On the evening of July 12, 1967, in Newark, New Jersey, two white police officers badly beat a black cab driver named John […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
“Our” beloved Colorado: Race, privilege, and landscape in the state’s history
As we look forward to Colorado Day on Aug. 1, History Colorado asked each member of its State Historian’s Council to reflect on what “our beloved Colorado” means to them. Here, Jared Orsi reflects on who we mean — and who we exclude — when we say “our.” One-hundred-twenty-seven years ago last week, Katharine Lee […]