Questions:

1. What problems did African Americans face when they wanted to dine out or attend a show at a Denver theater?
2. Why would white restaurant and theater owners put up signs like these?  What would motivate them?
3. These signs seem to contradict the 1895 civil rights law from document. What might African Americans in Denver do about that?
4. Does it still matter if Colorado had a law against discrimination if discrimination happened anyway?
5. Can the law help later on in some way?

***

Document 4: Photograph of women of Ku Klux Klan parade in Arvada, 1925

The Ku Klux Klan grew in popularity in Colorado and especially in Denver in the 1920s.  By 1924, there were about 35,000 members in Colorado.  Male and female members insisted that this was just a patriotic group, celebrating America.  The often included flags in photos.  But Klan leaders also threatened Catholic and Jewish immigrants as well as African Americans in Colorado.   They tried to repeal the 1895 Civil Rights law. Their hooded costumes symbolized white racism from the American South after the Civil War.

[Source: Denver Public Library, Call # X-21548.  Ku Klux Klan Ladies Auxiliary, 1925]

 

Questions:

1. What kinds of people do you see in this photograph?  Do they look dangerous?
2. The hoods are lifted so that we can see their faces.  Why do you think they didn’t cover their faces with hoods or masks?
3. What else do you see besides these people in Klan robes and hats?
4. What might those other symbols and people in the photograph mean?
5. Who do you think the men in the back are supposed to be? What are they saying about the Klan?
6. What might an African American leader do to protest the Klan in Arvada?

***

Document 5: Photograph of Whittier Elementary School Students, 1927

By the 1920s about ninety percent of Denver’s African American population lived in the neighborhoods called Five Points and Whittier, northeast of downtown.  While this area included the homes, offices, and stores of doctors, dentists, lawyers, and many small businessmen, the residents of Five Points were limited by discrimination.  African Americans were not able to buy houses in other neighborhoods.  That meant that schools in Five Points and Whittier had large numbers of African American students.  Here is a photograph of students at an elementary school in the Whittier neighborhood from 1927.  These students would likely be headed for Manual High School which served this same neighborhood.

[Source: Denver Public Library Collection: https://history.denverlibrary.org/five-points-whittier-neighborhood-history]

 

Questions:

1. How many African American students do you count in this picture? How many white students?  Could there be Mexican American students here too?
   
2. In Denver there were no laws that required black and white students to attend separate schools. Yet schools in neighborhoods like Five Points and Whittier had mostly black students and few whites.  Why do you think that happened?
3. Some African American parents in these neighborhoods wanted to move to different parts of Denver because they hoped for better school opportunities for their children. What might keep them from moving into mostly white neighborhoods?
4. If they could not move into white neighborhoods, what might African American parents do to help their kids in poor schools?
5. How do you think KKK Members from the previous document would feel about this photograph?

***

Document 6: Park Hill Neighborhood Flyer, 1932

Park Hill was just to the east of the Five Points and Whittier Neighborhoods in Denver.  People moved to Park Hill around 1900 to get away from the noisy city center of Denver.  Homeowners and realtors (who help sell and buy houses) made agreements not to sell existing homes to African Americans.  African American families could not buy houses in Park Hill in the 1920s because no white family or white realtor would sell to them.  The flyer below appear about 1932.

[Source: Denver Public Library, “Great Danger Ahead” Flyer, call # C917.8883 R312 1932;  “History of the Park Hill Neighborhood”: https://history.denverlibrary.org/park-hill-neighborhood-history]

WORD BANK: Residing: living Matters of vital importance: really important issues Relative to: related to

Questions:

1. This flyer was given out to Denver residents living the in Park Hill neighborhood. Where is that?  Which Denver neighborhoods are to the west of Park Hill?
2. Who is invited to the meeting? Why those people?
3. A man named Warren E. Davis created this flyer to alert his neighbors in Park Hill to a “great danger ahead.” It’s not until we read the last paragraph that we can find the danger. What was it?
4. Davis ends this flyer by suggesting that neighbors get together to “protect” themselves. Why would he use a word like “protect”?
5. In what ways might white homeowners try to prevent black buyers from moving into their neighborhood?
6. What makes this an example of discrimination?
7. What might African American home buyers in Denver do about this?

***

Document 7: “No Mexicans” Signs Removed, Greeley, 1926

In 1901 the Great Western Sugar Company began growing and refining sugar beets near Greeley in northern Colorado.  Mexican and Mexican Americans gradually began working in sugar beet fields.  Many of the Hispanic workers moved into communities in and around Greeley.  Here they faced discrimination and reminders that they were not thought of as equal to the white residents.  “No Mexicans” signs in restaurants were an obvious example.  The chamber of commerce was a group of business leaders asked to talk about these signs. Here is a newspaper story about those signs from 1926:

WORD BANK: Chamber of commerce: a group of business leaders in town Displayed: placed in a window Discriminatory: unfair

[After] friendly discussions with the businessmen [of Greeley] the chamber of commerce has secured the removal of “No Mexicans” signs from practically all of the . . local business places which displayed them.  The Spanish speaking people are very resentful of such discriminatory signs.

[Source: Greeley Tribune, (November 1, 1926).  Quoted in Jody L. Lopez and Gabriel A. Lopez, White Gold Laborers: The Story of Greeley’s Spanish Colony (2007) 215.]

Questions:

1. This newspaper story describes a change in Greeley. What were Greeley businesses doing before the change?
2. Why do you think this change happened? What led business owners to take them down?
3. This story appeared the same year as the Ku Klux Klan march pictured in document 4 above. From this story, could we make an assumption about whether the Klan was active in Greeley?  Why or why not?
4. Is this newspaper story enough for us to claim that Mexican immigrants and Mexican Americans no longer faced any discrimination in Greeley after 1926? Why or why not?
5. How could we find out if this was a temporary change for the better or a long-last one for Mexican Americans in Greeley?

Document 8: Corky Gonzales, “I am Joaquín,” 1967

By the 1960s, Mexican Americans protested discrimination and the lack of opportunities for their community.  Mexican America parents and students did not accept racism in the public schools.  The police at times harassed and even killed young Mexican Americans who were not dangerous.  Activists were also inspired by the black civil rights movement led by people like Martin Luther King, Jr.  In the poem below, Denver activist Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales expresses frustration and hope for Mexican Americans:

I am Joaquín

Lost in a world of confusion,

Caught up in a whirl of a gringo society.

Confused by the rules,

Scorned by attitudes . . .

My fathers have lost the economic battle

and won the struggle of cultural survival . . .

Here I stand,

Poor in money, arrogant with pride,

Bold with machismo, Rich in courage

And wealthy in spirit and faith.

My knees are caked with mud.

My hands calloused from the hoe.

I have made the Anglo rich, yet

Equality is but a word….

I have endured in the rugged mountains of our country

I have survived the toils and slavery of the fields.

WORD BANK: whirl: spinning gringo: a person who is not Hispanic or Latino scorned: feeling worthless economic battle: struggle to make enough money for success cultural: having to do with a group’s language, religion, and traditions survival: staying alive machismo: male toughness calloused: hardened skin patches from hard work Anglo: Mexican American word for white Americans rugged: uneven and rocky toils:  very hard work

 

I have existed

            In the barrios of the city

            In the suburbs of bigotry…

            In the prisons of dejection…..

I am the masses of my people and

I refuse to be absorbed

I am Joaquín….

I WILL ENDURE!

WORD BANK: barrios: neighborhoods where Mexican Americans live bigotry: intolerance for someone different dejection: feeling sad and depressed

Questions:

1. What words or phrases did the poet use to describe Joaquín?
2. What kind of work did Joaquín do?
3. Joaquín is obviously a boy’s or man’s name. But the poet here seems to use that name to represent other people. What people?  How does he use the name Joaquín to mean other people?
4. “Endure” and “survive” appear in the poem more than once. Why?
5. How did Gonzales write about hope?
6. In what ways did Joaquín feel excluded in this poem?
7. What could change to help Joaquín feel like he belonged in Colorado?

***

How to Use These Sources

This collection of sources offer students a chance to approach civil rights by considering exclusion and inclusion.  When in Colorado history did different groups face exclusion?  How did those excluded groups respond and fight to belong?  These are of course broad questions, but students can begin to address them here to create a context for the twentieth century history of civil rights.

 

Option 1: Students could start with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and document 1.  This will likely be familiar territory for many students and can help build a context for exploring civil rights.  How best should we today celebrate and honor the legacy of Dr. King?  Don’t worry if students do not yet know about specific national details like the Montgomery Bus Boycott or the Little Rock Nine or Selma.  The Colorado connection to Dr. King can be useful as a starting point for thinking about discrimination and civil rights.

Then students could begin to create a context for the civil rights struggle in Colorado.  What are civil rights?  The teacher might start an on-going list. The Civil Rights Law of 1895 offers a promise and a kind of test for later generations.  Keeping in mind the main question of equality, students could discuss how this law expressed a hope that different Colorado residents belonged in public places.  Civil rights are not easily understood by students, even though they quickly learn that Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks were civil rights heroes.  Over the course of the lesson, students could expand their list of civil rights and freedoms as they find them in the documents.

Following those initial documents, students in groups could consider cases that tested the first promise of equal treatment in that 1895 law.  Documents on restaurant and theater discrimination as well as the housing restrictions in Denver suggest the limits of that 1895 promise of inclusion.  The contract between law and reality on the streets of Denver is painful but important for students to understand.  America has always been a country of great promise.  What happens when the reality falls short for people of color?   Here student can expand on their list of civil rights.  Mexican American discrimination in Greeley, and the poem “I am Joaquín” provide additional examples of exclusion.  In each case, certain groups wanted to challenge exclusion and insist that they belonged in Colorado.  Students could answer the questions on each source in small groups and then discuss as a class what it meant to belong in each case.  How did these excluded groups want to belong?  How did they protest or push for inclusion?

 

Option 2: After completing the work in Option 1, students could turn to the issue of change over time.  How did Colorado get from exclusions and discrimination that we see in these documents to a holiday and statues honoring Dr. Martin Luther King?  This is not to suggest that racism no longer exists in Colorado or the United States.  But students could consider if there have been improvements and a larger movement toward fairness over time.  Of course, they will not be prepared at this point to provide a detailed explanation of that change over the twentieth century.  But they will have valuable ideas about how this happened.  This lesson could provide though a helpful introduction to questions of exclusion, inclusion and civil rights.  What caused this change over time?

 

Option 3: Write a poem about identity in light of this historical story.  What makes who you are?  Has your family faced challenges or exclusions that shaped who you are?  How are your family’s challenges similar to or different from those in this chapter?

 

Additional Resources:

Denver Public Library, “Five Points-Whittier Neighborhood History,” at: https://history.denverlibrary.org/five-points-whittier-neighborhood-history

Great Lives in Colorado History Biographies.  This elementary-level biography series includes bi-lingual English/Spanish titles on Justina Ford, Corky Gonzales, Chin Lin Sou, Barney Ford, and Clara Brown.

Dani Newsum, “Lincoln Hills and Civil Rights in Colorado,” Primary Source Set available at HistoryColorado.org.