%1 http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/ en Immigration to Denver, 1920–Present http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/immigration-denver-1920-present <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Immigration to Denver, 1920–Present</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2021-02-08T15:57:23-07:00" title="Monday, February 8, 2021 - 15:57" class="datetime">Mon, 02/08/2021 - 15:57</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/immigration-denver-1920-present" data-a2a-title="Immigration to Denver, 1920–Present"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fimmigration-denver-1920-present&amp;title=Immigration%20to%20Denver%2C%201920%E2%80%93Present"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>Beginning in the 1920s, immigration to Denver underwent several significant changes owing to war, economic depression, and evolving civil rights legislation and related social tensions. Movements of people due to <strong>World War II</strong>, Japanese internment, changing agricultural landscapes, the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s–60s, and Denver’s urban renewal campaign starting in the 1960s contributed to a revolution in Denver’s diversity and group relations. Denver’s ethnic diversity grew with new immigrants from Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Meanwhile, existing residents built up communities and fought to assert their rights as Denverites and American citizens.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>As before, wealthier immigrants from the eastern United States and Europe typically experienced the highest rate of acceptance in Denver as they became prominent business owners and took up seats in local government. Working-class immigrants—especially those from Latin America, Africa, and Asia—often faced discrimination in jobs and housing, even after civil rights legislation made it illegal.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>A New Era</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>By the 1920s, the city of <a href="/article/denver"><strong>Denver</strong></a> was home to residents from numerous religious, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds. English, German, Irish, Swedish, Italian, Polish, <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver%E2%80%99s-chinatown"><strong>Chinese</strong></a>, Japanese, Greek, and Russian immigrants were just some of the groups that had already moved to the city.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The start of the 1920s marked an important shift away from Denver’s <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/early-immigration-denver-1850%E2%80%931920"><strong>early immigration patterns</strong></a> that had begun in the 1850s. After the end of <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado-world-war-i"><strong>World War I</strong></a> and the Red Scare—a nationwide panic over Communism—the United States passed immigration restrictions that imposed new national origins quotas and effectively ended immigration from Asia. This new nativism was reflected in the revival of the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/ku-klux-klan-colorado"><strong>Ku Klux Klan</strong></a>, which gained a large following in Denver. Some members of the Klan even gained powerful government positions and tried to force Blacks, Jews, and Catholics out of the city.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The end of the war also prompted Latino servicemen to move their families from rural centers to Denver, especially the <strong><a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/auraria-west-denver">Auraria</a> </strong>neighborhood. Instead of Europeans and Asians, Latinos would become the most populous immigrant group in Denver during the twentieth century.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Auraria: Heart of Latino Culture</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>The Latinxs who moved to Auraria starting in the 1920s arrived largely via the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/sugar-beet-industry"><strong>sugar beet industry</strong></a>, which had started in Colorado around 1900 and soon joined ranching and <a href="/article/precious-metal-mining-colorado"><strong>mining</strong></a> as one of the most prominent industries in the state. The growth of the sugar beet industry demanded a new labor force to work beet fields and sugar factories. American Indian and Mexican laborers from southern Colorado, northern New Mexico, and Mexico became the preferred labor group for sugar beet farmers because they accepted lower wages than whites and were more easily available than Chinese, who had been banned from immigrating in 1882. Companies such as <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/great-western-sugar-company"><strong>Great Western Sugar</strong></a> also drew laborers from other marginalized groups in Colorado, including Japanese, Tejano (Texans of Mexican descent), and German Russian.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>During the 1920s, many Latinx farmers and World War I veterans began to move their families to Auraria, shifting the neighborhood from Central and Eastern European to Latinx. From the 1920s through the 1960s, the Latinx residents of Auraria created a rich culture. <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/st-cajetan%E2%80%99s-catholic-church"><strong>St. Cajetan’s Catholic Church</strong></a>, at the corner of Lawrence and Ninth Streets, was built in 1926 and represented the heart of Auraria.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>By the early 1940s, however, city officials became concerned about the concentration of Latinxs in the neighborhood, as they believed overpopulation and crowding were negatively affecting the lives of residents. This was a controversial issue, given that many Auraria residents liked their neighborhood. They had lived there for years, and despite its lack of resources, Auraria was rich in kinship, tradition, and community. Despite official concerns, the neighborhood continued to thrive until 1965, when it was inundated after the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/south-platte-flood-1965"><strong>South Platte River flooded</strong></a>.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The flood spurred the city to move ahead with a long-planned urban-renewal and flood-mitigation project that would transform Auraria into a <strong>tri-institutional college campus</strong>. With business in the city growing and a large generation of baby boomers nearing college age, the city saw the need for more higher education opportunities in the Denver metro area. After first banning the construction of new residential housing in Auraria in 1956, city officials argued in the wake of the 1965 flood that three-fourths of the neighborhood was “damaged beyond repair,” when in fact less than half of the area had been affected.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Denver proposed a bond to buy Auraria land and relocate the people who lived there. In response, angry residents established the Auraria Residents’ Organization to fight the initiative. Their efforts failed as powerful institutions lined up to support the measure. Denver archbishop James Casey, for example, urged Catholic voters to approve the bond. Some displaced residents believed the city paid off the church for its support. One granddaughter of a displaced resident claimed, “No one thinks they have a price. But everyone does. Even the church.” Whether or not the allegations were true, the bond passed with 52 percent of the vote.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The city went ahead with the project. Residents were forced to leave, and by 1972 relocations were complete. Many moved just south to <strong>La Alma–Lincoln Park</strong>, which had shifted from working-class European immigrants to Latinx residents in the previous two generations. After the Auraria campus was built, more tensions erupted when Chicano activists claimed that city officials had failed to deliver on promised scholarships to the children of displaced residents and a Hispanic cultural center on campus. Officials claimed they never found documents confirming such promises were made, but in the 1990s the campus began offering Displaced Aurarian Scholarships, which provide displaced residents and their children and grandchildren with eight semesters of tuition and funding at any of the campus’s three schools.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>The War Effort and Japanese Internment</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Denverites saw the benefits of war industry before, during, and after World War II. <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/fitzsimons-general-hospital"><strong>Fitzsimons Army Hospital</strong></a>, which had treated soldiers during World War I, was refurbished and expanded, while <strong>Lowry Air Force Base</strong> (1938) and <strong>Buckley Field</strong> (1942) opened east of town. Just west of Denver, construction on the giant <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver-ordnance-plant"><strong>Denver Ordnance Plant</strong></a> in <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/lakewood"><strong>Lakewood</strong></a> started in 1941. These new army bases and hospitals brought roughly four million servicemen and women to Denver during the war. Employment in war industries reached as high as 19,500 in 1943. After the war, many of these soldiers and workers relocated permanently to the Denver area, especially as federal agencies mushroomed in size. The Denver Federal Center, for example, replaced the ordnance plant, eventually adding thousands of new office jobs.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>While the war brought army and government personnel to Denver, it also caused an increase in the city’s Japanese population. In early 1942, when Japanese Americans were forced to leave their homes on the West Coast, many of them moved to inland states such as Colorado. Denver’s Japanese American population, clustered near the <strong>Tri-State Buddhist Temple</strong> on Lawrence Street, grew from 324 people in 1940 to 2,310 in 1944.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Other Japanese Americans were forced into detention camps because of fears that they would try to sabotage American war efforts. Ten concentration camps were built to incarcerate them, with one—<a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/granada-war-relocation-center-amache"><strong>Camp Amache</strong></a>, also known as the Granada War Relocation Center—in Colorado. Located near Granada in the southwest corner of Colorado, Camp Amache was built starting in June 1942. Many of the initial 212 detainees to arrive at the camp first had to help finish building it; in fact, the camp was still under construction when its population peaked at 7,567 people in October 1942.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>When Camp Amache detainees were gradually released toward the end of the war, many moved to Denver owing in part to sympathetic Governor <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/ralph-carr"><strong>Ralph Carr</strong></a> (1939–43), who believed that putting US citizens in concentration camps based on their race violated the Constitution. Hundreds of former Amache prisoners went to work on sugar beet and other farms in Denver, <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/adams-county"><strong>Adams</strong></a>, <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/jefferson-county"><strong>Jefferson</strong></a>, and <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/arapahoe-county"><strong>Arapahoe</strong></a> Counties, where they were welcome as agriculture was on the rise after the war, resulting in a huge demand for agricultural laborers. Although Governor Carr’s beliefs were welcoming to Japanese Americans, not all white Americans shared his sentiment, causing continued racial discrimination toward Denver’s Japanese population for years to come.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Most Japanese Americans in Denver, even those who had been US soldiers during World War II, did not enjoy equal rights and protections until the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, when Americans became somewhat more aware of the prejudices facing all ethnic minorities, not only Blacks. The McCarran-Walter Act of 1952 allowed Asian immigrants to become naturalized US citizens, and the Hart-Cellar Act of 1965 lifted discriminatory immigration quotas, opening US borders to significant numbers of new Asian immigrants for the first time in nearly half a century. Over the next fifty years, Asian immigrants were granted large numbers of visas because many of them had acquired advanced educations and technical expertise. This significantly increased Denver’s Asian American population, which more than doubled its share of the city from 1.4 percent in 1970 to 3.4 percent in 2010.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Today, <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/sakura-square"><strong>Sakura Square</strong></a> in downtown Denver functions as a sort of Japanese cultural center, home to several Japanese businesses as well as the Tri-State Buddhist Temple. Developed as a center for Japanese culture during the 1970s, the square has become home to Denver’s annual Cherry Blossom Festival, which includes celebrations of traditional Japanese practices such as the Japanese tea ceremony and <em>ikebana </em>flower arranging.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Black Denverites and the Five Points Neighborhood</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>During the 1910s and 1920s, a movement known as the Great Migration brought an influx of Black residents from the southern states to Denver. By 1920 about 2.4 percent of Denver’s population was Black, a proportion still much lower than in cities such as New York or Chicago (as well as many southern cities). Compared to many other cities, African Americans in Denver were moderately prosperous and well educated. Still, many of Denver’s Black residents worked as common laborers and were subject to racial prejudice, especially when the Ku Klux Klan emerged as a dominant force in the 1920s.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Many Black Denverites moved into the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/five-points"><strong>Five Points</strong></a> neighborhood, located near the five-way intersection of Washington Street, Welton Street, East Twenty-Sixth Avenue, and Twenty-Seventh Street. While Five Points had initially been home to European immigrants, a housing boom in the 1920s allowed whites to move to newer, higher-class neighborhoods. Discrimination and restrictive covenants forced Blacks to remain in older, lower-quality housing in Five Points. By 1929 more than 75 percent of the city’s Black residents lived in Five Points. The area’s population skyrocketed during and after World War II, with the neighborhood’s Black population almost doubling to 13,500 in 1950.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>During the 1950s, Five Points became known as the “Harlem of the West,” home to several well-known jazz clubs such as the Casino Cabaret and <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/rossonian-hotel"><strong>Rossonian Lounge</strong></a>. But the neighborhood experienced significant changes in the next few decades. Denver’s Fair Housing Act of 1957, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the federal Fair Housing Act of 1968 made it possible for African Americans and other groups to move to better housing in neighborhoods where segregation had previously barred them. As a result, the population of Five Points decreased by half between 1950 and 1970. As Black Denverites moved elsewhere, Latinx people soon made up 40 percent of the population in Five Points. Many businesses that had been owned by Blacks (including several popular jazz clubs) shut down, and older buildings were demolished in the name of urban renewal.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>North and East African Immigrants</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>As American immigration policy changed in the second half of the twentieth century, Denver became home to several thousand refugees from other countries, most notably countries in North and East Africa and the Middle East. In addition to abolishing discriminatory national-origins quotas, the Hart-Cellar Act of 1965 established a new policy based on reuniting immigrant families and attracting skilled laborers from other countries. Immigration of refugees further increased when President Jimmy Carter signed the Refugee Act of 1980, which promised to provide effective resettlement of refugees and assistance in helping them to achieve economic self-sufficiency.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Colorado has been the destination of choice for many of these refugees. The US Office of Refugee Resettlement reported that more than 9,500 African refugees and asylum seekers settled in Colorado between 1980 and 2014. The majority of these immigrants came from Ethiopia, Somalia, Iraq, Sudan, Iran, and Syria, with smaller numbers from Liberia, Eritrea, and other countries. In fact, while in 2014 Mexico remained the most common country of origin for immigrants in Colorado, Ethiopia placed second.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Many Colorado-bound refugees settled in Denver, while some moved to smaller cities such as <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/fort-collins"><strong>Fort Collins</strong></a> and <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/fort-morgan"><strong>Fort Morgan</strong></a>. A variety of local agencies mobilized to help immigrants learn English, start businesses, and obtain counseling and legal services, including the Catholic Charity Center, the Global Refugee Center in <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/greeley"><strong>Greeley</strong></a>, and the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network in <strong>Westminster</strong>. African immigrants found economic success, owning more than 300 businesses in Denver and employing thousands of people in the city. This economic success has resulted in greater involvement of first- and second-generation African immigrants in Colorado politics. In 2018, for example, <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/joe-neguse"><strong>Joe Neguse</strong></a>, the son of Eritrean parents, won election to the US House of Representatives from Colorado’s Second <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado-congressional-districts"><strong>Congressional District</strong></a>.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Despite their general success, some North and East African immigrants have faced discrimination, particularly those who are Muslim. Muslim meatpacking workers in northern Colorado—mostly Somali immigrants—have been fired on multiple occasions for taking prayer breaks, while in 2019 a <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver%E2%80%99s-capitol-hill"><strong>Capitol Hill</strong></a> landlord was forced to pay $675,000 for refusing to rent to a Muslim family, claiming the family was not American because of its religion.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>“Natives” and “Transplants”</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>In addition to people from other countries, Denver saw an increase in immigrants coming from other parts of the United States in the 2010s. This internal migration has been attributed to Colorado’s tourism industry, the state’s relatively low unemployment rate, and the legalization of <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/cannabis-marijuana"><strong>marijuana</strong></a> in 2012. The city’s population mushroomed by more than 100,000 people, with more than 60 percent of that growth attributable to newcomers. These immigrants came not only from other states, but also from economically struggling rural areas of Colorado, suggesting that Denver’s economy has been a main draw for many people in recent years.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Newcomers to Colorado are commonly referred to as “transplants,” while those born in the state—apparently oblivious to the existence of American Indians and their own immigrant past—sometimes call themselves “natives.” Many of the so-called transplants moving into Denver are young, white, middle-class professionals, a large number of whom do not have children. As more of these transplants moved to Denver, skyrocketing housing prices, worsening traffic, and greater competition for jobs resulted in some tensions between newcomers and the so-called natives who call Denver home. While many residents have embraced or accepted the city’s growth, some have chosen to relocate.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Conclusion</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>From 1920 to the present, Denver has become home to new groups of immigrants from all over the country and the world. Today, Denver continues to celebrate its rich cultural diversity with events such as the Cherry Blossom Festival, Cinco de Mayo celebrations, the Denver Greek Festival, the Five Points Jazz Festival, and others. Many historic churches and religious centers such as St. Elizabeth’s Catholic Church, the Tri-State Buddhist Temple, and <strong>Temple Emanuel</strong> continue to offer services. Despite major changes, formerly ethnic neighborhoods such as Five Points and Auraria still pay homage to previous residents’ cultures and histories with areas such as the Ninth Street Historic Park and the <strong>Black American West Museum</strong>. Denver’s rich cultural heritage is also evident in an ongoing push for equal rights for all citizens, as was seen in the <strong>protests of June and July 2020</strong>.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Denver continues to welcome refugees from other countries as well as immigrants from other parts of the United States. While the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/coronavirus-colorado"><strong>COVID-19 pandemic</strong></a> caused a decline in tourism, Denver has still seen its population increase. The city is predicted to continue to grow and welcome newcomers for the foreseeable future, which will add to Denver’s rich diversity and inevitably create new demographic shifts, conflicts, and movement patterns within the city. </p>&#13; </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-author--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-author.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-author.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-author field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-author"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-author">Author</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-author"><a href="/author/kennedy-anna" hreflang="und">Kennedy, Anna</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/denver" hreflang="en">Denver</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/african-american-history" hreflang="en">african american history</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/african-americans-denver" hreflang="en">african americans denver</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/latino-immigration" hreflang="en">Latino Immigration</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/auraria" hreflang="en">auraria</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/auraria-higher-education-center" hreflang="en">Auraria Higher Education Center</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/refugees" hreflang="en">refugees</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/world-war-ii" hreflang="en">World War II</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/colorado-immigration" hreflang="en">Colorado immigration</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/immigration" hreflang="en">immigration</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-references-html--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-references-html.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-references-html.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-references-html field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-references-html"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-references-html">References</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-references-html"><p>“<a href="https://history.denverlibrary.org/neighborhood-history-guide/auraria-neighborhood-history">Auraria Neighborhood History</a>,” Denver Public Library, April 21, 2014.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2014/06/02/colorados-african-immigrants-step-up-politically-on-neguse-candidacy/">Colorado’s African Immigrants Step Up Politically on Neguse Candidacy</a>,” <em>The</em> <em>Denver Post,</em> June 2, 2014.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2015/12/22/colorados-population-jumped-by-101000-in-12-months/">Colorado’s Population Jumped by 101,000 in 12 Months</a>,” <em>The Denver Post</em>, December 22, 2015.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Encyclopedia Staff, “<a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/five-points">Five Points</a>,” <em>Colorado Encyclopedia</em>, last modified October 29, 2019.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Elizabeth Escobedo, “<a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/terminology-latino-experience-colorado">Terminology: The Latino Experience in Colorado</a>,” <em>Colorado Encyclopedia</em>, last modified December 29, 2017.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Kathleen Foody, “Denver Landlord Who Refused to Rent to Muslim Men Settles Lawsuit for $675,000,” <em>The Denver Post, </em>May 3, 2019.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.lincolnparkneighborhood.org/history/">History</a>,” Lincoln Park Neighborhood Association, n.d.</p>&#13; &#13; <p><strong>Melyn Johnson, “At Home in Amache: A Japanese-American Relocation Camp in Colorado,” </strong><em>Colorado Heritage </em><strong>(1988).</strong></p>&#13; &#13; <p>Stephen J. Leonard and Thomas J. Noel, <em>Denver: Mining Camp to Metropolis </em>(Niwot: University Press of Colorado, 1990).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Jon Murray, “<a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2019/04/18/denver-population-growth-census/">Denver’s Population Has Grown by Nearly 20 Percent Since 2010—And It’s Picking Up Again</a>,” <em>The Denver Post</em>, April 18, 2019.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.hppr.org/hppr-news/2018-09-14/muslim-workers-receive-1-7m-in-settlement-with-cargill-over-prayer-breaks">Muslim Workers Receive $.17M in Settlement with Cargill Over Prayer Breaks</a>,” High Plains Public Radio, September 14, 2018.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Bernadette Jeanne Pérez, “<a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/sugar-beet-industry">Sugar Beet Industry</a>,” <em>Colorado Encyclopedia</em>, last modified August 6, 2020.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Eric Peterson, “<a href="https://www.confluence-denver.com/features/denver_by_the_data_8_population_011817.aspx">Denver by the Data, Vol. 8: Population and Demographics</a>,” Confluence Denver, January 18, 2017.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Alan Prendergast, “<a href="https://www.westword.com/news/looking-to-aurarias-future-while-studying-the-lessons-of-its-past-5119749">Looking to Auraria’s Future While Studying the Lessons of Its Past</a>,” <em>Westword, </em>February 28, 2013.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Alan Prendergast, “<a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/south-platte-flood-1965">South Platte Flood of 1965</a>,” <em>Colorado Encyclopedia</em>, last modified June 5, 2020.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Michael Roberts, “<a href="https://www.westword.com/news/denver-metros-population-is-up-more-than-388000-in-eight-years-11316402">Metro Denver’s Population Is Up More Than 388,000 in Eight Years</a>,” <em>Westword</em>, April 19, 2019.</p>&#13; &#13; <p><strong>“</strong><a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2016/03/19/somalis-struggle-to-make-new-home-in-colorado/">Somalis Struggle to Make a New Home in Colorado</a><strong>,” <em>The Denver Post, </em>March 19, 2016. </strong></p>&#13; &#13; <p><strong>Megan Verlee, “</strong><a href="https://www.npr.org/2008/10/01/95254631/fired-muslims-to-sue-over-prayer-break-dispute">Fired Muslims to Sue Over Prayer Break Dispute</a><strong>,” NPR, October 1, 2008.</strong></p>&#13; &#13; <p>William Wei, <em>Asians in Colorado: A History of Persecution and Perseverance in the Centennial State</em> (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2016).</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p>Rocky Mountain PBS, <a href="https://video.rmpbs.org/video/2365030024/" title=" (external link)">“Amache 1-Hour Special,”</a> <em>Colorado Experience</em>, June 20, 2013.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Rocky Mountain PBS, “<a href="https://video.rmpbs.org/video/auraria-uurrvk/">Auraria</a>,” <em>Colorado Experience</em>, March 18, 2019.</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Mon, 08 Feb 2021 22:57:23 +0000 yongli 3529 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org Julia Greeley http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/julia-greeley <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Julia Greeley</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2018-06-19T13:23:26-06:00" title="Tuesday, June 19, 2018 - 13:23" class="datetime">Tue, 06/19/2018 - 13:23</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/julia-greeley" data-a2a-title="Julia Greeley"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fjulia-greeley&amp;title=Julia%20Greeley"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>Julia Greeley (c. 1840–1918) was born into slavery in Missouri. Around 1880 she moved to <a href="/article/denver"><strong>Denver</strong></a> and became a Catholic. Despite being poor herself, Greeley spent the rest of her life doing good deeds for the impoverished. In 2016 the Catholic Church opened the Cause for Sainthood to determine whether she may someday be canonized.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Early Life</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Julia Greeley did not know her age or the full names of her parents. Estimates of the year of her birth range from the mid-1830s to the mid-1850s. What is known is that she was from Hannibal, Missouri, and that she was born into slavery. As a child, she was blinded in one eye by a slave master’s whip. She was free by 1865, when Missouri, which had not been subject to President Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Emancipation Proclamation, passed an Emancipation Proclamation of its own.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>By about 1871, Greeley was living in St. Louis, Missouri, and was employed by Dr. Gervais Paul Robinson and his wife, Lina Pratte Robinson. While working for the Robinsons, she met Lina’s sister, Julia Pratte Dickerson. A widow with four children, Julia Dickerson was courted by <a href="/article/william-gilpin"><strong>William Gilpin</strong></a>, former first territorial governor of Colorado. The two wed in 1874 and moved to Denver.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In the late 1870s, Julia Greeley left her position with the Robinson family in St. Louis. She asked Dr. Robinson to write a letter for her to the Gilpins, asking for employment. According to the 1880 census, Julia Greeley was in Denver working for the Gilpin family. But marital relations between the Gilpins were strained, and by 1883 Julia’s service with them ended. She worked in both New Mexico and Wyoming during the next four years, but returned to Denver in 1887 to testify in the Gilpins’s bitter divorce trial. For the remainder of her life, Julia cooked, cleaned, and did odd jobs in the Denver area, all the while looking out for the city’s poor residents.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Charitable Work</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>A devout Catholic, Julia Pratte Gilpin introduced Julia Greeley to the Catholic Church. Greeley was baptized on June 26, 1880, at Sacred Heart Church on Larimer Street. In Catholic theology, the Sacred Heart represents Christ himself, and it was through the image of the Sacred Heart that Greeley dedicated her life to serving Christ .</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Her devotion to her Catholic faith took many forms. She fasted each day until noon, telling the priests “My communion is my breakfast.” Each month, she walked to all the fire stations in the city to hand out Catholic leaflets. She passed out the leaflets to Catholics and non-Catholics alike, saying, “They are all God’s children.” <strong>Denver Fire Station no. 1</strong>, at 1326 Tremont, was one of the stations Julia visited each month.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Pulling a little red wagon, Julia would also deliver various goods to homes of the poor. She had almost no money herself, but she was exceptionally good at finding things that others needed. Julia did not limit herself to just the necessities of food, fuel, and clothing; one night, she was seen carrying a mattress on her back to deliver to a family. Another night, it was a baby carriage. And on another, it was a broken doll that she was taking home to fix for a child. Greeley asked girls in one part of the city to not wear their pretty clothes for too long, and to give them to her before the dresses were worn out. Then, she would deliver the dresses to poor girls in another part of the city so they could attend dances.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Despite finding lovely dresses for others, Greeley herself was known for the old, tattered dress she nearly always wore, and a wide-brimmed black hat. She was a small woman, around five feet tall. The right eye that had been blinded continually wept, and she always carried a cloth to wipe her face.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Greeley also loved to sing, and church music was a vital part of her life. In the late 1890s, she was working at <strong>Fort Logan</strong> as a cook. She was one of a small group who regularly attended services in a basement chapel. She also purchased an organ for the tiny church. At some point, Greeley learned how to play the piano. She would sometimes play and sing at church services at Sacred Heart. She was also a friend of Mother Pancratis Bonfils, a principal at St. Mary’s Academy and the founder of Loretto Heights College. After Mother Bonfils died, Greeley had a requiem high mass sung for her.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In Catholic tradition, a Third Order is a group of people who live according to the ideals of a religious order, but who do not take religious vows. In 1901 Greeley joined the Third Order of Saint Francis at the St. Elizabeth of Hungary Parish at Eleventh and Lawrence. Saint Francis had been born into wealth, but gave it up to pursue his faith. By becoming a member of the Third Order of St. Francis, Greeley was making a spiritual commitment to continue doing what she had been doing for years: to live simply, to love God, and to think of all people as her brothers and sisters.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Love of Children</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Julia Greeley’s obituary noted that she “loved children with the intensity found in the saints.” She was always available to look after babies when they were sick or when their mothers needed to run errands. She even arranged picnics for children in Denver’s <a href="/article/city-park"><strong>City Park</strong></a>; Greeley would pack up a lunch, take ten or so children on a trolley ride to the park, and joke with the conductor that all the children were hers.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>One day in 1914, Mrs. Agnes Urquhart asked Julia to mop her floor. Noticing religious pictures on the walls, Greeley asked if the Urquharts were Catholic. When Mrs. Urquhart said yes, Julia asked where the children were. There had only been one child, Mrs. Urquhart told her, and he had died from an inability to digest food. Mrs. Urquhart was unable to have any more children. Julia told Mrs. Urquhart that there would be “a little white angel running around the house. I will pray and you will see.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The only known photo of Julia Greeley shows her with baby Marjorie Urquhart, the “little white angel.” It was taken in April 1916, in Denver’s McDonough Park across Federal Boulevard from St. Catherine’s Church.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Death and Funeral</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Julia Greeley died on Friday, June 7, 1918, on the day of the Feast of the Sacred Heart, the ideal to which she had devoted her life. The tiny notice in the <strong><em>Denver Post</em></strong> stated that services would be Monday morning at the W.P. Horan &amp; Son funeral chapel. Sometime that Sunday, a decision was made to move the viewing to Loyola Chapel on Ogden Street. No one expected the large crowds that came to see her. For five hours, people from all walks of life in Denver filed past the body.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>For more than thirty years, Julia had labored to care for the people of Denver. She had brought fuel to the poor, food to the hungry, and clothes to the needy. But most of her labors had been done at night, in secret. She had not wanted anyone to be embarrassed that it was a black woman coming to help.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>It was not until her funeral, with the crowds that came in her honor, that people began to realize the full extent of Julia Greeley’s work. Her obituary in <em>The Denver Catholic Register</em>, complete with a five-tiered banner headline, acknowledged her extraordinary virtues with the line, “Her life reads like that of a canonized saint.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Nearly a century later, the Catholic Church is exploring whether Julia Greeley might indeed be a saint. On December 18, 2016, Denver Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila presided over a special Mass that opened her case for canonization. Canonization is the act of declaring that a person who has died was a saint, and that he or she is included in the canon, or list, of saints. With the opening of her Cause for Sainthood, Julia Greeley is now considered to be a “Servant of God.”</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Road to Canonization</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>The memory of Julia Greeley’s charity has endured nearly a hundred years later. The Archdiocese of Denver used her as their Model of Mercy and produced a short video of her life. The Archdiocese also commissioned an icon of Julia. Icons use a symbolic language of images to communicate a life. In Julia’s case, the pictures include the mountains of Colorado, a child, a firefighter hat and axe, a little red wagon, the Franciscan coat of arms, and a Sacred Heart image.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The process of becoming a saint is long. A special tribunal has begun to examine Julia Greeley’s life, and other commissions in Rome will further review the tribunal’s work. If she were found to have lived a life of “heroic virtue,” there would still need to be two separate instances of miracles, in which people prayed for her assistance and received a miracle, before she might be named a saint.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The actual process of canonization may take years, and its outcome is uncertain. Father Blaine Burkey devoted a full year to researching Julia Greeley’s life, publishing his findings in a book, <em>In Secret Service of the Sacred Heart.</em> As Father Burkey noted, “people have been saying ever since she died that she ought to be canonized.”</p>&#13; </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-author--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-author.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-author.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-author field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-author"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-author">Author</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-author"><a href="/author/wroble-susan" hreflang="und">Wroble, Susan</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/julia-greeley" hreflang="en">julia greeley</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/african-americans-colorado-0" hreflang="en">african americans in colorado</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/african-american-history" hreflang="en">african american history</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/black-history-colorado" hreflang="en">black history colorado</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/catholic-church" hreflang="en">catholic church</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/womens-history" hreflang="en">women&#039;s history</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/black-women-colorado" hreflang="en">black women colorado</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-references-html--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-references-html.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-references-html.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-references-html field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-references-html"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-references-html">References</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-references-html"><p>Archdiocese of Denver, “<a href="https://vimeo.com/151101683">Julia Greeley – Our Model of Mercy</a>,” Vimeo, January 7, 2016.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Blaine Burkey, <em>In Secret Service of the Sacred Heart: The Life &amp; Virtues of Julia Greeley, </em>2nd ed. (Denver: Julia Greeley Guild, 2015).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Melissa Keating, “Decoding the Julia Greeley Icon,” <em>Denver Catholic </em>(February 10, 2016).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Aaron Lambert, “Denver’s ‘Angel of Charity’ on road to Sainthood,” <em>Denver Catholic</em>, November 17, 2016.</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p><a href="https://archden.org/">Archdiocese of Denver</a></p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-4th-grade--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-4th-grade.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-4th-grade.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-4th-grade field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-field-4th-grade"><p>Julia Greeley (c. 1840–1918) was born a slave in Missouri. Around 1880 she moved to <strong>Denver</strong> and became a Catholic. Greeley spent the rest of her life helping the poor. The Catholic Church is deciding if Greeley can become a saint.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Early Life</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Julia Greeley did not know her age or the full names of her parents. She did not even know when she was born. She did know was that she was born a slave in Hannibal, Missouri. She was blind in one eye because of a slave master’s whip. Greeley became free in 1865.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>By 1871, Greeley was living in St. Louis, Missouri. She worked for Dr. Gervais Paul Robinson and his wife, Lina. She met Lina’s sister, Julia Pratte Gilpin.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Julia began working for the Gilpin family in Denver. She also worked in both New Mexico and Wyoming after she left the Gilpin’s. For the rest of her life, Julia cooked, cleaned, and did odd jobs in Denver. She also looked out for the city’s poor people.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Charitable Work</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Greeley was baptized at Sacred Heart Church on June 26, 1880. Greeley spent her life serving Christ.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Greeley’s faith was strong. She did not eat until noon each day. Each month, she walked to all the fire stations in the city to hand out Catholic flyers. She gave the flyers to Catholics and non-Catholics alike, saying, “They are all God’s children.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Julia would deliver many things to the poor using a little red wagon. She delivered food, fuel, and clothing. Julia also delivered things like a mattress, a baby carriage, a broken doll that she had fixed for a child.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Greeley wore an old, ragged dress and a large black hat. She was around five feet tall. Her blind right eye always wept, and she carried a cloth to wipe her face.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Greeley loved to sing, and church music was an important part of her life. Julia went to church in the basement of <strong>Fort Logan</strong>. She bought an organ for the tiny church and learned to play the piano. She would sometimes play and sing at church services at Sacred Heart.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In 1901 Greeley joined the Third Order of Saint Francis. Greeley made a promise to live a simple life, to love God, and to think of all people as her brothers and sisters.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Love of Children</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Julia loved children. She was always available to look after babies when needed. Julia also planned picnics for children in Denver’s <strong>City Park</strong>.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In 1914, Julia met Mrs. Agnes Urquhart who told Julia that her only child had died and she could not have any more. Julia told Mrs. Urquhart that there would be “a little white angel running around the house. I will pray and you will see.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The only known photo of Julia Greeley, taken in April 1916, shows her with baby Marjorie Urquhart, the “little white angel” that she had prayed for.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Death and Funeral</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Julia Greeley died on June 7, 1918. No one expected the large crowds that came to see her. For five hours, people from all over Denver walked past the body.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>For more than thirty years, Julia had cared for the people of Denver. She had brought fuel to the poor, food to the hungry, and clothes to the needy, most of the time in secret.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>It was not until her funeral, with the crowds that came in her honor, that people understood the value of Julia Greeley’s work.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Nearly a century later, the Catholic Church is deciding if Julia Greeley can become be a saint. Greeley is thought to be a “Servant of God.”</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Road to Canonization</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>The memory of Julia Greeley’s charity has survived for nearly a hundred years. The Catholic Church in Denver used her as their Model of Mercy. An icon of Julia has been ordered an icon of Julia, using images of her life. These pictures include the mountains of Colorado, a child, a firefighter hat and axe, a little red wagon, the Franciscan coat of arms, and a Sacred Heart image.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The process of becoming a saint can take years. A special court has begun to decide if Julia Greeley lived a life of “heroic virtue.” There also needs to be proof of two miracles before she can be named a saint.</p>&#13; </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-8th-grade--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-8th-grade.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-8th-grade.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-8th-grade field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-field-8th-grade"><p>Julia Greeley (c. 1840–1918) was born into slavery in Missouri. Around 1880 she moved to <strong>Denver</strong> and became a Catholic. Greeley spent the rest of her life doing good deeds for the poor. In 2016 the Catholic Church began the process to decide if Greeley might someday be canonized.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Early Life</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Julia Greeley did not know her age or the full names of her parents. She did not even know what year she was born. What she did know was that she was born a slave in Hannibal, Missouri. As a child, she was blinded in one eye by a slave master’s whip. In 1865 Greeley became free when Missouri passed an Emancipation Proclamation of its own.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>By about 1871, Greeley was living in St. Louis, Missouri, and was employed by Dr. Gervais Paul Robinson and his wife, Lina. She met Lina’s sister, Julia Pratte Dickerson, who married <strong>William Gilpin</strong>, a former governor of Colorado.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In the late 1870s, Julia left the Robinson family and began working for the Gilpin family in Denver. She stopped working for them by 1833. She worked in both New Mexico and Wyoming for four years. For the rest of her life, Julia cooked, cleaned, and did odd jobs in the Denver area. She also looked out for the city’s poor people.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Charitable Work</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Julia Pratte Gilpin introduced Julia Greeley to the Catholic Church. Greeley was baptized at Sacred Heart Church on June 26, 1880. Greeley devoted her life to serving Christ.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Greeley’s faith was strong. She did not eat until noon each day. Each month, she walked to all the fire stations in the city to hand out Catholic flyers. She passed out the flyers to Catholics and non-Catholics alike, saying, “They are all God’s children.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Julia would deliver various supplies to the poor using a little red wagon. She delivered food, fuel, and clothing. Julia also delivered things like a mattress, a baby carriage, a broken doll that she had fixed for a child, and hand-me-down dresses.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Despite finding lovely dresses for others, Greeley wore an old, tattered dress and a wide-brimmed black hat. She was a small woman, around five feet tall. Her blind right eye constantly wept, and she always carried a cloth to wipe her face.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Greeley loved to sing, and church music was an important part of her life. Julia attended services in the basement chapel of <strong>Fort Logan</strong>, where she worked as a cook. She purchased an organ for the tiny church and learned to play the piano. She would sometimes play and sing at church services at Sacred Heart. After Julia’s friend, Mother Pancratis Bonfils, died Greeley had a requiem high mass sung for her.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In 1901 Greeley joined the Third Order of Saint Francis at the St. Elizabeth of Hungary Parish. Greeley made a spiritual promise to continue doing what she had been doing for years: to live simply, to love God, and to think of all people as her brothers and sisters.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Love of Children</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Julia Greeley’s obituary noted that she “loved children with the intensity found in the saints.” She was always available to look after babies when needed. Julia also planned picnics for children in Denver’s <strong>City Park</strong>. She would pack up a lunch and take ten or so children on a trolley ride to the park.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In 1914, Julia met Mrs. Agnes Urquhart, who was also a Catholic. Mrs. Urquhart told Julia that her only child had died, and she was unable to have any more children. Julia told Mrs. Urquhart that there would be “a little white angel running around the house. I will pray and you will see.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The only known photo of Julia Greeley, taken in April 1916, shows her with baby Marjorie Urquhart, the “little white angel” that she had prayed for.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Death and Funeral</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>On June 7, 1918, Julia Greeley died. No one expected the large crowds that came to see her. For five hours, people from all over Denver filed past the body.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>For more than thirty years, Julia had cared for the people of Denver. She had brought fuel to the poor, food to the hungry, and clothes to the needy, most of the time in secret.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>It was not until her funeral, with the crowds that came in her honor, that people began to realize the full extent of Julia Greeley’s work. Her obituary in <em>The Denver Catholic Register </em>says, “Her life reads like that of a canonized saint.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Nearly a century later, the Catholic Church is exploring whether Julia Greeley might indeed be a saint. With the opening of her Cause for Sainthood, Julia Greeley is now considered to be a “Servant of God.”</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Road to Canonization</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>The memory of Julia Greeley’s charity has survived for nearly a hundred years. The Archdiocese of Denver used her as their Model of Mercy and produced a short video of her life. The Archdiocese also ordered an icon of Julia, using images that represent her. These pictures include the mountains of Colorado, a child, a firefighter hat and axe, a little red wagon, the Franciscan coat of arms, and a Sacred Heart image.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The process of becoming a saint is long. A special tribunal has begun to examine Julia Greeley’s life to see if she lived a life of “heroic virtue.” There also needs to be proof of two separate miracles, in which people prayed for her assistance and received a miracle, before she might be named a saint. The actual process of canonization may take years, and its outcome is unsure.</p>&#13; </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-10th-grade--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-10th-grade.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-10th-grade.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-10th-grade field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-field-10th-grade"><p>Julia Greeley (c. 1840–1918) was born into slavery in Missouri. Around 1880 she moved to <strong>Denver</strong> and became a Catholic. Despite being poor herself, Greeley spent the rest of her life doing good deeds for the impoverished. In 2016 the Catholic Church opened the Cause for Sainthood to determine whether she may someday be canonized.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Early Life</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Julia Greeley did not know her age or the full names of her parents. Estimates of the year of her birth range from the mid-1830s to the mid-1850s. What is known is that she was from Hannibal, Missouri, and that she was born into slavery. As a child, she was blinded in one eye by a slave master’s whip. She was free by 1865, when Missouri, which had not been subject to President Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Emancipation Proclamation, passed an Emancipation Proclamation of its own.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>By about 1871, Greeley was living in St. Louis, Missouri, and was employed by Dr. Gervais Paul Robinson and his wife, Lina Pratte Robinson. While working for the Robinsons, she met Lina’s sister, Julia Pratte Dickerson. A widow with four children, Julia Dickerson was courted by <strong>William Gilpin</strong>, former first territorial governor of Colorado. The two wed in 1874 and moved to Denver.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In the late 1870s, Julia Greeley left her position with the Robinson family in St. Louis. She asked Dr. Robinson to write a letter for her to the Gilpins, asking for employment. According to the 1880 census, Julia Greeley was in Denver working for the Gilpin family. But marital relations between the Gilpins were strained, and by 1883 Julia’s service with them ended. She worked in both New Mexico and Wyoming during the next four years, but returned to Denver in 1887 to testify in the Gilpins’s bitter divorce trial. For the remainder of her life, Julia cooked, cleaned, and did odd jobs in the Denver area, all the while looking out for the city’s poor residents.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Charitable Work</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>A devout Catholic, Julia Pratte Gilpin introduced Julia Greeley to the Catholic Church. Greeley was baptized on June 26, 1880, at Sacred Heart Church on Larimer Street. In Catholic theology, the Sacred Heart represents Christ himself, and it was through the image of the Sacred Heart that Greeley dedicated her life to serving Christ.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Her devotion to her Catholic faith took many forms. She fasted each day until noon, telling the priests “My communion is my breakfast.” Each month, she walked to all the fire stations in the city to hand out Catholic leaflets. She passed out the leaflets to Catholics and non-Catholics alike, saying, “They are all God’s children.” <strong>Denver Fire Station no. 1</strong>, at 1326 Tremont, was one of the stations Julia visited each month.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Pulling a little red wagon, Julia would also deliver various goods to homes of the poor. She had almost no money herself, but she was exceptionally good at finding things that others needed. Julia did not limit herself to just the necessities of food, fuel, and clothing; one night, she was seen carrying a mattress on her back to deliver to a family. Another night, it was a baby carriage. And on another, it was a broken doll that she was taking home to fix for a child. Greeley asked girls in one part of the city to not wear their pretty clothes for too long, and to give them to her before the dresses were worn out. Then, she would deliver the dresses to poor girls in another part of the city so they could attend dances.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Despite finding lovely dresses for others, Greeley herself was known for the old, tattered dress she nearly always wore, and a wide-brimmed black hat. She was a small woman, around five feet tall. The right eye that had been blinded continually wept, and she always carried a cloth to wipe her face.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Greeley also loved to sing, and church music was a vital part of her life. In the late 1890s, she was working at <strong>Fort Logan</strong> as a cook. She was one of a small group who regularly attended services in a basement chapel. She also purchased an organ for the tiny church. At some point, Greeley learned how to play the piano. She would sometimes play and sing at church services at Sacred Heart. She was also a friend of Mother Pancratis Bonfils, a principal at St. Mary’s Academy and the founder of Loretto Heights College. After Mother Bonfils died, Greeley had a requiem high mass sung for her.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In Catholic tradition, a Third Order is a group of people who live according to the ideals of a religious order, but who do not take religious vows. In 1901 Greeley joined the Third Order of Saint Francis at the St. Elizabeth of Hungary Parish at Eleventh and Lawrence. Saint Francis had been born into wealth, but gave it up to pursue his faith. By becoming a member of the Third Order of St. Francis, Greeley was making a spiritual commitment to continue doing what she had been doing for years: to live simply, to love God, and to think of all people as her brothers and sisters.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Love of Children</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Julia Greeley’s obituary noted that she “loved children with the intensity found in the saints.” She was always available to look after babies when they were sick or when their mothers needed to run errands. She even arranged picnics for children in Denver’s <strong>City Park</strong>; Greeley would pack up a lunch, take ten or so children on a trolley ride to the park, and joke with the conductor that all the children were hers.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>One day in 1914, Mrs. Agnes Urquhart asked Julia to mop her floor. Noticing religious pictures on the walls, Greeley asked if the Urquharts were Catholic. When Mrs. Urquhart said yes, Julia asked where the children were. There had only been one child, Mrs. Urquhart told her, and he had died from an inability to digest food. Mrs. Urquhart was unable to have any more children. Julia told Mrs. Urquhart that there would be “a little white angel running around the house. I will pray and you will see.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The only known photo of Julia Greeley shows her with baby Marjorie Urquhart, the “little white angel.” It was taken in April 1916, in Denver’s McDonough Park across Federal Boulevard from St. Catherine’s Church.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Death and Funeral</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Julia Greeley died on Friday, June 7, 1918, on the day of the Feast of the Sacred Heart, the ideal to which she had devoted her life. The tiny notice in the <strong><em>Denver Post</em></strong> stated that services would be Monday morning at the W.P. Horan &amp; Son funeral chapel. Sometime that Sunday, a decision was made to move the viewing to Loyola Chapel on Ogden Street. No one expected the large crowds that came to see her. For five hours, people from all walks of life in Denver filed past the body.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>For more than thirty years, Julia had labored to care for the people of Denver. She had brought fuel to the poor, food to the hungry, and clothes to the needy. But most of her labors had been done at night, in secret. She had not wanted anyone to be embarrassed that it was a black woman coming to help.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>It was not until her funeral, with the crowds that came in her honor, that people began to realize the full extent of Julia Greeley’s work. Her obituary in <em>The Denver Catholic Register</em>, complete with a five-tiered banner headline, acknowledged her extraordinary virtues with the line, “Her life reads like that of a canonized saint.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Nearly a century later, the Catholic Church is exploring whether Julia Greeley might indeed be a saint. On December 18, 2016, Denver Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila presided over a special Mass that opened her case for canonization. Canonization is the act of declaring that a person who has died was a saint, and that he or she is included in the canon, or list, of saints. With the opening of her Cause for Sainthood, Julia Greeley is now considered to be a “Servant of God.”</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Road to Canonization</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>The memory of Julia Greeley’s charity has endured nearly a hundred years later. The Archdiocese of Denver used her as their Model of Mercy and produced a short video of her life. The Archdiocese also commissioned an icon of Julia. Icons use a symbolic language of images to communicate a life. In Julia’s case, the pictures include the mountains of Colorado, a child, a firefighter hat and axe, a little red wagon, the Franciscan coat of arms, and a Sacred Heart image.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The process of becoming a saint is long. A special tribunal has begun to examine Julia Greeley’s life, and other commissions in Rome will further review the tribunal’s work. If she were found to have lived a life of “heroic virtue,” there would still need to be two separate instances of miracles, in which people prayed for her assistance and received a miracle, before she might be named a saint.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The actual process of canonization may take years, and its outcome is uncertain. Father Blaine Burkey devoted a full year to researching Julia Greeley’s life, publishing his findings in a book, <em>In Secret Service of the Sacred Heart.</em> As Father Burkey noted, “people have been saying ever since she died that she ought to be canonized.”</p>&#13; </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Tue, 19 Jun 2018 19:23:26 +0000 yongli 2940 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org Oliver Toussaint Jackson http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/oliver-toussaint-jackson <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Oliver Toussaint Jackson</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2016-09-29T14:47:20-06:00" title="Thursday, September 29, 2016 - 14:47" class="datetime">Thu, 09/29/2016 - 14:47</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/oliver-toussaint-jackson" data-a2a-title="Oliver Toussaint Jackson"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Foliver-toussaint-jackson&amp;title=Oliver%20Toussaint%20Jackson"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>Oliver Toussaint “O. T.” Jackson (1862–1948) was an entrepreneur and prominent member of black communities in <a href="/article/denver"><strong>Denver</strong></a> and <a href="/article/boulder"><strong>Boulder</strong></a> during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In 1910 he founded <a href="/article/dearfield"><strong>Dearfield</strong></a>, an-all black agricultural settlement some twenty-five miles southeast of <a href="/article/greeley"><strong>Greeley</strong></a>. Jackson firmly believed that successful blacks should work to help poorer blacks and that land ownership and agriculture were keys to a prosperous future for African Americans. Although Dearfield is a ghost town today, the community’s success from 1915 through the 1930s was a testament to Jackson’s leadership and solidified his place among Colorado’s notable visionaries of the twentieth century.</p> <h2>Early Life</h2> <p>Oliver Toussaint Jackson was born on April 6, 1862, in Oxford, Ohio, the son of former slaves Hezekiah and Caroline Jackson. They named him after Toussaint L’Ouverture, the maroon slave who successfully overthrew the French in Haiti in 1804. In 1887 O. T. Jackson moved from the Midwest to the Denver area, where he worked as a caterer.</p> <p>In 1889 he married Sarah “Sadie” Cook, aunt&nbsp;of the famous composer Will Marion Cook. By 1894 Jackson had made enough money to buy a farm outside Boulder, which he owned for sixteen years. He lived at 2228 Pine Street in Boulder and, in addition to his farm, he began operating the Stillman Café and Ice Cream Parlor on Thirteenth Street. In 1898 he became a staff manager at the<a href="/article/colorado-chautauqua"><strong> Chautauqua</strong></a> Dining Hall, supervising seventy people (and possibly owning the food concession). Jackson also owned and operated a restaurant at Fifty-fifth and Arapahoe Streets that became famous for its seafood. The eatery remained popular until it closed when Boulder went dry in 1907.</p> <p>Confusion exists about whether Jackson and his first wife divorced or if she died. In either case, he married Minerva J. Matlock, a schoolteacher from Missouri, on July 14, 1905. In 1908 Jackson returned to Denver, where he began a twenty-year career as a messenger for Colorado governors.</p> <h2>Dearfield</h2> <p>In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, some 20 percent of blacks in the United States worked in agriculture, but few owned the land they worked on. Inspired by Booker T. Washington’s <em>Up From Slavery </em>(1901), Jackson believed that farming their own fields would empower black Coloradans, and he tried to start an all-black agricultural colony. The state land office, however, often ignored his requests because he was black. Jackson eventually secured the help of Governor <strong>John F. Shafroth</strong>, for whom he worked as a messenger, and obtained land for his colony. In 1909, after considering three tracts of <a href="/article/homestead"><strong>homestead</strong></a> land in <a href="/article/larimer-county"><strong>Larimer</strong></a>, <a href="/article/elbert-county"><strong>Elbert</strong></a>, and <a href="/article/weld-county"><strong>Weld</strong></a> Counties, Jackson selected a 320-acre tract in Weld County near present-day Orchard. Like other agricultural communities along the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/front-range"><strong>Front Range</strong></a>, Jackson’s would be modeled after the <strong>Union Colony</strong>, founded in 1870. But unlike the Union Colony, which was backed by wealthy newspaperman Horace Greeley, Jackson’s colony did not garner financial support from prominent black organizations, so he was left to realize his dream on his own.</p> <p>In December 1909, Jackson formed the Negro Townsite and Land Company to develop the colony. That year, Dr. Joseph H.P. Westbrook of Denver, one of the colony’s first settlers and most ardent supporters, remarked that the colony “will be very dear to us,” thus bestowing a name, Dearfield, on the new community. Dearfield was officially established in 1910.</p> <p>Jackson’s family and the rest of Dearfield’s early settlers had many problems. Some were so poor they could not afford to ship their possessions from Denver, so they walked part of the distance. Among this group only two families could afford to erect a twelve-by-fourteen-foot building with a fence. The other five families had to live in tents or in holes dug in a hillside. Sometimes the men had to work on other farms to earn spending money while their wives and children worked the land. There were also continual shortages of fuel—many residents burned buffalo chips to keep warm—and water.</p> <p>Over time, however, the colony prospered. Residents raised a variety of crops and livestock, including corn, melons, squash, hay, sugar beets, alfalfa, ducks, chickens, and turkey. A surge in prices for agricultural products during World War I helped the community, and by 1921 Dearfield’s land was valued at $750,000 and supported a population of 700. But despite the determination of Jackson and the rest of Dearfield’s residents, the <strong>Great Depression</strong> and <a href="/article/dust-bowl"><strong>Dust Bowl</strong></a> of the 1930s decimated the colony. By 1940 only twelve residents remained.</p> <p>As people left, Jackson sold Dearfield’s buildings for lumber because it was so scarce. Some folks in the 1930s sold out for five dollars a house. Even before he became ill in 1946, Jackson had been searching for a young black man to keep his dream alive. He told a returning World War II serviceman who had lived with the Jacksons as a boy that “he could have the whole thing” if he would come out to Dearfield and run the place for him. The young man’s new bride did not want any part of it, so he declined.</p> <h2>Later Life</h2> <p>Jackson’s wife Minerva died in 1942. When he could not find any willing buyers for the property, in 1943 he asked his nieces, Jenny Jackson and Daisy Edwards, to come to Dearfield. Daisy came for a short time, while Jenny stayed to nurse her uncle in his last years.</p> <p>Illness and age had overtaken Jackson’s messianic zeal. In 1946, at the age of eighty-four, he again tried to sell Dearfield with an advertisement in the <em>Greeley Tribune</em>. He had no takers. The land remained in Jackson’s possession until his death in a Greeley hospital on February 8, 1948. He had lived in Dearfield for thirty-eight years. His dutiful niece Jenny, who had cared for him the last five years of his life, remained alone in Dearfield for more than twenty years until her death in 1973.</p> <p>The Dearfield site was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1995. Today, several preservation organizations, including Denver’s <strong>Black American West Museum</strong>, are working to restore the site’s six original buildings and develop Dearfield into an interpretive historical site.</p> <p><strong>Adapted from Karen Waddell, “Dearfield . . . A Dream Deferred,” <em>Colorado Heritage</em> no. 2 (1988).</strong></p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/ot-jackson" hreflang="en">o.t. jackson</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/oliver-toussaint-jackson" hreflang="en">Oliver Toussaint Jackson</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/dearfield" hreflang="en">Dearfield</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/african-american-history" hreflang="en">african american history</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/black-history" hreflang="en">black history</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/all-black-settlements" hreflang="en">all-black settlements</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/agriculture" hreflang="en">agriculture</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/farming" hreflang="en">farming</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/agricultural-colony" hreflang="en">agricultural colony</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/dearfield-colorado" hreflang="en">dearfield colorado</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/dearfield-history" hreflang="en">dearfield history</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/boulder" hreflang="en">boulder</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/stillman-cafe" hreflang="en">stillman cafe</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/sadie-cook" hreflang="en">sadie cook</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/john-f-shafroth" hreflang="en">john f. shafroth</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/weld-county" hreflang="en">weld county</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/negro-townsite-and-land-company" hreflang="en">negro townsite and land company</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/black-american-west-museum" hreflang="en">Black American West Museum</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p>George Junne, Jr., Ostia Ofoaku, Rhonda Corman, and Rob Reinsvold, “Dearfield, Colorado: Black Farming Success in the Jim Crow Era,” in <em>Enduring Legacies: Ethnic Histories and Cultures of Colorado</em>, ed. Arturo Aldama (Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2011).</p> <p>William Loren Katz, <em>The Black West: A Documentary and Pictorial History of the African American Role in the Westward Expansion of the United States</em> (New York: Broadway Books, 2005).</p> <p>Melvin Edward Norris, Jr., <em>Dearfield, Colorado—The Evolution of a Rural Black Settlement: An Historical Geography of Black Colonization on the Great Plains</em> (PhD dissertation, University of Colorado–Boulder, 1980).</p> <p>Quintard Taylor, <em>In Search of the Racial Frontier: African Americans in the American West, 1528-1990 </em>(New York: W.W. Norton, 1998).</p> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Thu, 29 Sep 2016 20:47:20 +0000 yongli 1887 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org