Community engagement is needed and welcome!
Join the Colorado Black Equity Study team at Mirror Image Arts for a community listening session. Learn about the Study’s progress so far, and participate by providing guided input based on your own experiences. All are welcome but space is limited. Please R.S.V.P using the form below if you would like to attend.
About the Study
On June 4, 2024, Governor Jared Polis signed Senate Bill 24-053 (SB24-053) into law. SB24-053 established a Black Coloradan Racial Equity Study Commission and directed History Colorado to conduct evidence-based historical research of practices, systems, and policies of the State of Colorado that have harmfully impacted Black Coloradans.
SB24-053 is a community-envisioned legislative measure that was carried and advocated for by the Black Caucus at the Colorado State legislature and is funded entirely by grants, gifts, and donations.
Over the next two years History Colorado will conduct evidence-based historical research and provide the Black Coloradan Racial Equity Study Commission with quarterly updates. History Colorado will also conduct community engagement sessions where the public may provide input based on lived experiences of practices, systems, and policies of the State of Colorado which negatively impact Black Coloradans.
At the conclusion of this research, the Black Coloradan Racial Equity Study Commission will hire a third party to conduct an economic analysis based on the research conclusions of History Colorado. This economic analysis will be submitted to the Black Coloradan Racial Equity Study Commission and used to draft a final report which will include any recommendations to address harms caused by practices, systems, and policies of the State of Colorado.
This final report will be submitted to the following stakeholders and made publicly accessible through the General Assembly’s website:
The General Assembly of the State of Colorado
The Governor of Colorado
The Colorado State Board of Education
The Colorado Commission on Higher Education
Since fall 2025, the Colorado Black Equity Study team has:
● Continued to conduct archival research on criminal justice, banking, business, education, and housing in collections at History Colorado, the State Archives, the Denver Public Library, the University of Denver, and the University of Colorado–Boulder.
● Compiled a database of all known Black prisoners in the state penitentiary from 1870 to 1980 and another database of Black businesses in operation in the early 20th century.
● Completed a detailed study of the Black prisoner population in Colorado since the 1980s, assessing the effects of different sentencing changes on Black incarceration rates.
● Completed a detailed study of Black suburbanization in the Denver metro area since the 1970s, analyzing the push and pull factors that have made Arapahoe County home to Colorado’s largest Black population.
● Drafted the section of the report covering the early twentieth century (1910–1935), showing how whites created segregated neighborhoods and schools as well as how Black Coloradans tried to resist and worked to build refuges such as Lincoln Hills.