John Scarffe, Nederland. Wearing masks and bearing signs, about 20 Gold Hill residents gathered at the Gold Hill Inn parking lot at noon on Thursday, June 18, to join the national protests against racial injustice. Most cities in the nation have seen protests over the death of George Floyd, who died after an interaction with police in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25, 2020.

Gold Hill Resident Cat Russell, who organized the event, said, “This is a pretty progressive community, with lots of people active in such initiatives as renewable energy and organic gardening.” Russell has been living in Gold Hill with their partner for two years, and said people are so friendly and welcomed them into the community. 

“You meet someone who has a big beard and start talking to him and find out he is a retired scientist.” Residents are interested in social justice and environmental issues.

Before living in Gold Hill, Russell taught school in Altadena, California. While teaching racial injustice, they found racial dot maps based on the 2010 census with dots showing where people of different races lived. Out of all the cities in the nation, Altadena was the most racially diverse they could find with people of different races living next to each other as neighbors.

This fact really motivated Russell to pursue research into segregation and historical covenants that wouldn’t allow homes to be sold to blacks. Now in Gold Hill, they asked, “What can we do? We can allow area folks to participate and call for changes.”

Russell said: “I heard some of my friends were walking down to one of the Black Lives Matters protests, and it occurred to me that going to a protest is hard for most of our residents, for several reasons. The average age in Gold Hill is 67, 30 years older than the average age in Colorado as a whole. 

“We have lots of people whose spirit is willing but who aren’t up for the long drive down to a protest, standing all day, etc. We are also being very careful as a community to wear masks and social distance. 

“We are aware that many in our community are in at least one vulnerable category for suffering from COVID-19, and we are trying hard to protect our neighbors and loved ones by minimizing trips to the city, so we have a food distribution system in Gold Hill. They don’t want to send people to Boulder or Denver for a protest and have them come back with COVID,” Russell said. 

“I saw an article about protests happening in mostly white small towns and thought -- why not have one here and plan it in such a way that our elders could show their support safely?” 

Juneteenth was Friday, June 19, so it seemed like a good way to incorporate that message into the protest, Russell said. They also said this protest is not just about national social injustice but local cases also. For example, an Aurora resident died during an interaction with police in 2019.

Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old man, died at a hospital after a violent struggle with officers. Officers attempted to stop McClain when he was walking in the 1900 block of Billings Street near East Colfax Avenue. Someone had called 911 to report a “sketchy” man flailing his arms.

McClain refused to stop for officers when they first contacted him. An officer got close to McClain and touched him. Three officers then wrangled McClain toward a lawn and took him down. 

While he was held on the ground, an officer applied a carotid control hold around McClain’s neck, while McClain was handcuffed with his hands behind his back. He vomited several times.

Elijah McClain was declared “brain dead” on August 27 at a local hospital, and the autopsy said that intense physical exertion and a narrow left coronary artery contributed to his death. The night of the incident, after McClain was handcuffed, authorities injected him with ketamine to sedate him. He suffered cardiac arrest during the ambulance ride to a hospital. This past week, the Aurora Interim Police Chief announced she is banning choke holds.

Russell only advertised the June 18 protest to the 250 Gold Hill residents, inviting people to wear a mask and bring a sign and a chair. They heard from a dozen or so and only received one dismissive message from a neighbor who said, “Get a life!” 

Gold Hill residents began arriving at the parking lot around noon with their signs and formed a circle in the parking lot. Bob Mason, a 55-year Gold Hill resident, participated in the protest. 

Mason said he worked for the University of Colorado and the Naval Research Laboratory. “I’m a recovering bigot. I’ve been turning the leaf over for about 70 years,” he said.

Russell explained to the group that they would do no shouting, and at 12:30 p.m., the protestors marched to the store in Gold Hill and then spread out along Main Street back to the Gold Hill Inn. 

Russell then called for a silence of 8 minutes and 42 seconds, which was the amount of time the police officer had his knees on George Floyd. During the period of silence, Russell asked the protestors to think about concrete actions they could take to help with racial injustice, such as changing policies. 

Then they turned and shared with the person next to them their plans of action. “We need to acknowledge the power we have to affect change,” Russell said. 

They also told participants about the Mountain Anti-Racist Self-Education Club kickoff meeting on June 30. Gold Hill is launching the club to read anti-racist books so they don’t do unhelpful things, and then share ideas of what they can do. 

“Studying is great, but we need to take a step beyond and make concrete actions,” Russell said. 

(Originally published in the June 25, 2020, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)