Dear Editor,

Like your other readers I enjoyed the various columns regarding the history of Black people in Colorado printed in The Mountain-Ear. While the history of Lincoln Hills is certainly interesting, it is one largely of visitors to the county. I thought that your readers would enjoy hearing about some things about Black people who actually lived, worked, raised their families, attended the schools, and participated in all the activities here in Gilpin County. I’m sure that equally interesting stories could be related about Boulder County but I simply am ignorant of that history.

Much of this history has become obscured by a deliberate re-writing of the true history by “Denver society” when they came here and basically whitewashed the pre-existing history and replaced that with their preferred narrative. So today we have two competing narratives of the past: the truth, as revealed by research and documentation versus the “everybody knows,” “I’ve always heard...” claptrap that attributes 100% of the past to the sole efforts of the white anglo protestants from a particular county in England who actually comprised only about 15% of the total population. Those people did make a valuable contribution to our history but only in proportion to their number.

There were certainly a lot of negative experiences for Blacks here, such as they would have received at Severance Lodge, which was racially restricted. That was a more recent phenomenon which began in the 1920s and 30s and is not representative of the majority of the history of the mining districts.

For instance, in Central City there was a fairly large and well-integrated Black community, from the 1860s until the 1920s, by which time the mines had become exhausted and the vast majority of people of all races left the county. The source of all the wealth was gone and so those who depended upon it, which was everybody basically, also left. They had no choice. Norm Blake used to say that Gilpin County entered the depression twenty years before the rest of the country and that seems to have been true. The mines largely went belly up during the era when the principal source of power was still steam. That was a while ago.

During the early era, however, when things were prosperous, Blacks, along with nearly every other type and variety of our species were active and quite prominent in the making of Gilpin and Colorado. Former slaves, having thrown off their chains, took up the life of free men and women here as in many other places and flourished as they had never been permitted previously. And flourish they indeed did. In Central City we had Black miners, blacksmiths, woodcutters, barbers, ministers, plasterers, skilled workers and business owners of all sorts. Some were more than somewhat successful. They built many of the rock walls which we find in the area and there is a tradition that they brought the yellow roses here although that is a tough claim to substantiate properly.

Black people did not live in any particular neighborhood in Central. They were sprinkled here and there in some of the best neighborhoods, not confined to any ghetto. One family lived in an owner occupied house located between one of the more prominent brewers and the County Clerk and Recorder. Sounds integrated to me.

Another family was particularly noted for their academic accomplishments. The children were all born and raised in Central, sons and daughters of former slaves from Virginia who clearly prioritized school. They all graduated high school in an era when few boys of any race went to school beyond what we now call the eighth grade. Two of the boys and one of the girls were the valedictorians of their respective high school classes in Central City and each gave the valedictory address at the Opera House. One of the boys was awarded a full four-year scholarship to the State Agricultural College. The girl went on to graduate from D.U. This in the Jim Crow era when Blacks in other places were being lynched for daring to ride in the same railroad cars as whites. People here clearly had no such problem. In fact these same scholars were welcome guests in the homes of their classmates when various types of parties were held.

Another family, whose patriarch was a very wealthy mine operator, built one of the nicest houses in Central. The lady was prominent in many things including the Shakepearean society which met monthly at different members’ homes. Apparently she and other members of this group would choose scenes from the bard’s plays which they would study in depth, combining social and intellectual interests. The group included both men and women. She was also noted as a particularly gracious hostess and the Methodist minister B.T. Vincent was always a guest at her home when he visited his former parish after his transfer elsewhere.

Even yet another family, about whom I know little except for the gentleman, who was formerly a slave, then later a teamster for the Union forces during the Civil War. He worked at the Bobtail mine during the Cornish miners’ strike of 1873 and he was threatened by a large group of strikers with being “ridden on a rail.” He however stood his ground and the angry mob did not molest him. The Cornish also lost the strike as I’m sure you’ve all heard.

Of course, not all the Black folks lived in Central either. There were Black mine owners and operators in Moon Gulch, south and west of Rollinsville, who had Black investors (or partners, I’m not quite sure) from Central City. There were others in Apex. More still in tributaries of Russell Gulch who later sold their claims to Mrs. Brown. There was a Black man who had a photography studio in Black Hawk.

A similar situation existed in Clear Creek County. Idaho Springs and Georgetown each had at least one Black high school valedictorian. However, while the young lady in Idaho Springs was confirmed in her rights, in Georgetown the young man was denied his because of his race. Sad but true.

In the mining field, the acknowledged best machine drilling team in the Argo or Newhouse tunnel was a crew of Black men. Of course, it is well known that the first successful smelting of the ores in the Georgetown area was at the Red, White, and Blue smelter which was entirely capitalized, owned, and operated by Blacks. Our own Mrs. Clara Brown was one of the investors (she was a very savvy woman).

I offer this “history light” as a small glimpse of what is out there waiting to be reported by anyone willing to put a bit of effort in. It’s time consuming but it certainly is interesting. As the preeminent historian of Black Hawk told me “I don’t believe anything written after 1930” and I think that is good advice. From 1930 on it isn’t history, it’s just bosh.

As the late Harold Brown, himself a Tuskegee airman, said, “What the Tuskegee Airmen did is not Black history, it’s not military history, it’s American history.” So too, this is Gilpin history, Colorado history, American history, our collective history and one of which I think we should be better aware of and take more care to research and document.

Submitted with respect and gratitude for your journalistic excellence,

John Kittredge

Russell Gulch