Photo courtesy of the Denver Public Library Western History Collection.
Free slave Clara Brown (1800-1885) is possibly the first African American woman to have crossed the plains into Colorado during the Gold Rush. Brown used the success she achieved as an entrepreneur to engage in remarkable acts of charity.
The great movement to the American West readily conjures up
images of white American pioneers traveling by covered wagon in search of a new
life.Films, stories, and history books perpetuate
the imagery, often excluding the critical contributions and accounts of the
many ethnic groups that made settlement of the West possible.In particular, the roles of African Americans
remain widely unknown.
The stories of African Americans, both enslaved and free,
provide a rich addition to the national narrative.Grueling duties as participants of the
earliest Westward expeditionary parties in the 16th century led to
remarkable acts of ingenuity and entrepreneurship in the following centuries.Numerous black Americans sought opportunity
and equality in the budding communities of the West, often looking to farming
and ranching as a means to prosperity.Frequently in small numbers, these new Westerners organized rich social
and cultural lives, creating extensive social networks and church groups to
help each other’s families.
Not limited to the rural communities, many African Americans
recognized and capitalized on the labor demands of Western cities and
towns.By 1870, for example, Denver, Colo.,
had attracted a sizable black middle class, including
a number of physicians and lawyers.In
fact, Denver’s
first black female physician, Dr. Justina Warren Ford, arrived in 1902.Equally enterprising black men and women
whose wide-ranging contributions to the West included prospecting, land
management, and community development, paralleled her achievement.
The BLM Division of Cultural and Paleontological Resources
and Tribal Consultation worked in partnership with CoppinStateUniversity to uncover dozens of
individual accounts of African Americans in the West.The publication, “Finding History’s Forgotten
People: The Presence of African Americans in the Settlement of Colorado, c.
1534 to 1954,” is the result of months of extensive research.It reveals vast amounts of little known, but
highly valuable, information concerning the role of African Americans in the
development of the American West.
American history has often overlooked the noteworthy and
unique contributions of many ethnic groups to the settling and cultivating of
the American West.The CoppinState
research project highlights the involvement of African Americans in many
aspects of BLM’s management of Western public lands.These include the disciplines of
homesteading, mining, cattle ranching and entrepreneurship.The research team set out to produce
information that would help BLM create a more inclusive narrative on the role
of African Americans in settling the West.In its first phase, the CoppinState research team focused their attention on the
state of Colorado.Their research provides detailed accounts of
individual African Americans, the struggles they faced and overcame, their
successes as well as failures and their overall contributions to early Colorado society.
“Finding History’s Forgotten People” highlights BLM’s
commitment to advancing equal opportunity in higher education, enhancing access
to federal programs and promoting the development of new partnerships.The BLM Office of Civil Rights encourages
agency managers and employees to identify products and services that a Minority
Serving Institution, such as CoppinStateUniversity,
can provide.These partnerships create a
true “win-win” situation that supports an institution’s professional
development and curriculum while enhancing BLM’s commitment to effective
stewardship of America’s
public lands.
For more information
on “Finding History’s Forgotten People,” contact BLM historian Michael
Thomas, (202) 452-5192.
For more information
on the BLM’s Diversity Executive Orders Program, contact Steve Shafran in the
BLM’s Office of Civil Rights, (202) 254-3315.