July 14, 2010NEH SeminarModupe Labode

1. The West—a wide and varied place—has always been multiracial.

2. Race is a historical construct; it is not a biological reality.

3. Racism is a tricky critter—it hides, masquerades, and appears where you least expect it.

4. The past does not look like the present.

This and other images from photoswest.org, Denver Public Library

Professor of American History at University of Washington

Incoming president of the Western History Association

Creator of website: blackpast.org

Sanborn Maps Census Data Newspapers Photographs City Directories

Colorado Population: Total: 589,000 White: 529,049 Negro: 8,570 “Indians”: 1,337 Chinese: 599 Japanese: 48

Image: Gilpin School, Denver

Table 20: Chinese in Denver 1880: 612 1890: 1,398 1900: 599

Peak of Chinese population in the 1880s

Chinese Exclusion Act, 1882

Chinese American home, Denver, ca. 1914

Table 21: Census—Japanese in Colorado 1880? 1890: 9 1900: 48

Baseball Team: Denver, 1910-1920

One of the earliest “streetcar suburbs” in Denver.

Gradually became less well-heeled and more diverse throughout the nineteenth century

Architecture reveals its pastThe majority of Denver’s African

Americans lived in Five Points, but was not wholly African American

Born in Louisiana in 1867Moved to St. Louis with her young

daughter, Lelia.Worked as a washerwoman, and

began selling Annie Pope-Turnbo’s hair care product.

Moved to Denver in 1905.

Settled with family “Politics of

Respectability” Adopted the name

Madam C.J. Walker

Image from Library of Congress

Left Denver in 1906

In 1907 she made $3,653, about 3 times more than she made in 1906

Settled in Indianapolis in 1910

Died in 1919

Born in the 1840s Father, Ochinee, was

a Cheyenne sub-chief.

Married John Prowers, a trader from Missouri

Called “Amy” Individuals who

identify as white and Cheyenne include her in their family tree

The Homma Children, interned in Colorado. From the Denver Post, July 4, 2009Homma Children

Official name: Granada

Name chosen to honor or acknowledge Amache Prowers

Parents were born into slavery. Henry McDaniel, her father, served in the Union Army.

Family left Tennessee in 1879—Exodusters

Hattie born in Kansas, the youngest child.

Family moved to Denver in 1890.

Father worked as laborer; mother as laundress, cook, maid

Attended 24th Street School (pictured here) and East High School

Dreams of show business Married Howard Hickman

when she was 17 Finally left Denver in

1925, when she was in her 30s.

Made it to Hollywood in the early 1930s.

Image from Ball State University

D = Dwelling S=Store Street numbers Stables, sheds,

outbuildings Stories in structure Alleys, water

hydrants, road surfaces, etc.

1340-1344 Pennsylvania Avenue—Vol. 3, 1904, Sheet #342

30th & Downing, Vol. 3, Sheet #216

Other people to consider, for the case of Denver:

Paul Laurence Dunbar, who spent time in Denver around 1900, in search for a cure for TB

Emily French, whose diary describes working class life in Denver, 1890.