Seeking Equal Education Opportunity in a Multiracial City: School Desegregation in Denver, Colorado, 1945-1973

• In Event: Contested Spaces: Situated Histories of Desegregation

Abstract

Denver offers a unique lens into the era of school desegregation, as understanding desegregation in Denver requires an analysis that moves beyond the Black/White binary. In order to fully understand the dynamics of race, the state, and individual rights, it is paramount to account for the diverse communities that constitute the city’s population. Moreover, Colorado and the Inter-Mountain West have received very little consideration in the historiography of school desegregation, as such, this paper hopes to reveal new ways of understanding the era and illuminates the complexity in attaining equal educational opportunity in a school system segregated by race.

Author

• Michael F. Suarez, University of Colorado - Boulder