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Uncovering Colorado's History of Racism

Study documents state’s legacy of slavery, systemic racism and discrimination that has harmed Black residents

Cynthia Pasquale,

AARP

Published May 01, 2026

Getty Images

When Chloé Duplessis and her team of researchers embarked on a project to document racial disparities in Colorado, they quickly dispelled the notion that slavery didn’t exist in the Centennial State.

In its earliest days as a territory, most settlers who came to the area were interested in gold and making a fortune — not agriculture — and so didn’t own slaves. But some settlers who relocated from other states did bring the slaves they owned with them.

In the 1920s, state political leaders — including the governor, judges, Denver’s mayor and town officials from around the state — were known members of the Ku Klux Klan. Slavery was not fully abolished in the Colorado Constitution until 2018.

“It did exist here,” says Duplessis, with History Colorado, the state’s historical society. “Why? Because people were coming here for the beauty, for the opportunity, and they were coming from slave-holding states.”

The findings are part of an effort to document the state’s legacy of slavery, systemic racism and discrimination. The researchers are examining how Black Coloradans have been harmed in material ways — both historically and currently — by policies and practices adopted by the state.

The research project stems from 2024 legislation that established the Black Coloradan Racial Equity Study Commission and directed History Colorado to conduct the Colorado Black Equity Study.

“The disparities between Black and white Coloradans are not abstract. They are measurable and deeply concerning,” says Rep. Naquetta Ricks (D-Arapahoe County), a bill sponsor and commission member.

Using the study findings, an analysis of the financial impact of systemic racism will be conducted and recommendations made to the commission on ways to address those harms.

“We have both the responsibility and the tools to quantify these disparities, examine their roots and recommend meaningful corrective measures grounded in data and history,” Ricks says.

Listening and Learning

In 2024, the poverty rate among Black Coloradans was 17.6 percent, compared with 7.3 percent for their white counterparts, according to KFF, a nonprofit research and policy organization.

Disparities in education, homeownership, the justice system and access to health care have all contributed to that economic gap, according to the legislation that mandated the Black equity study. The bill also noted that:

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Black individuals make up 5 percent of the state’s population but are 17 percent of those in jail and 18 percent of those in prison.
Black workers have higher unemployment rates than other racial groups.
Life expectancy for Black Coloradans is three years less than for white residents of the state.

The study did not receive state funding but is being financed by more than $1 million in donations, gifts and grants.

Researchers have pored over newspapers, advertisements and some of the more than 15 million items in the History Colorado collection. They also scoured archives at universities, libraries — including the Library of Congress — and other historical societies and organizations throughout the state.

They are also aiming to collect about 100 oral histories and conduct listening sessions around the state, allowing residents to voice their experiences.

AARP Colorado provided funding for researchers to conduct interviews last year. This year, AARP volunteers were invited to attend several listening sessions.

Alton Dillard, 62, a semi-retired communications expert with governmental experience, is a member of the AARP Executive Council who says he helps act as a “bridge to the Black community.” He attended one of the listening sessions.

“As somebody who’s been involved in politics for north of 50 years, I see [the study] as a good first step,” Dillard says. “This is my lived experience.”

The study will be made public in March 2027, via the Colorado General Assembly website.

“We cannot change history, but we can confront it honestly,” says Ricks, the state representative. “By doing so, we can build a Colorado where justice, opportunity, and well-being are not determined by race, but are accessible to all.”

Slavery, Lynchings a Part of Colorado’s Past

In 1859, Joel Estes, a farmer, hunter and gold seeker, moved with his wife and children from Missouri to what would one day become Estes Park — a town in northern Colorado known as the gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park. But Estes and his family didn’t come alone.

“He brought a wagon, he brought supplies, but he also brought five enslaved people—Black people,” says Denver-based historian Chloé Duplessis.

Duplessis and her team at History Colorado are documenting such historical instances of slavery in the state as part of the legislatively-mandated Colorado Black Equity Study.

Since the project launched in January 2025, the researchers’ work has included:

Identifying nine leading Colorado politicians who owned slaves and dozens more who were raised in slaveholding families.
Completing a study of Colorado lynchings in the late 1800s—including documenting complicity by the state government in allowing the crimes to go unpunished.
Identifying bombings that targeted Black Denverites in the 1920s.
Documenting how legal policies, such as zoning and restrictive covenants, prevented Black residents from living in neighborhoods near City Park until after World War II.
Compiling a database of all known Black prisoners in the state penitentiary from 1870 to 1980.

Go to historycolorado.org/co-black-equity-study to learn more about the researchers’ findings.