The Rise of Color-Blind Multicultural Education: Denver Schools in the Postwar Era, 1945–1970

• In Event: 66.020 - Curriculum Discourse Through History and Disappearances From the Narrative

Abstract

This paper examines how Denver Public Schools served its increasingly diverse student population from the early Cold War through the early 1970s. Public officials and social reformers sought to overcome the persistent racial inequities that existed before World War II. Often times, however, their benevolence was misguided, as efforts toward cultural sensitivity reaffirmed old racial stereotypes and stigmatizations about non-white communities. The unsuccessful attempt at cultural awareness, inclusion, and assimilation of non-white students into the general populace led to a deeper divide between those in control of the schools and the city’s non-white citizens.

Author

• Michael F. Suarez, University of Colorado - Boulder