The Colorado legislature’s Black Caucus wants to tackle long-standing racial disparities that impede Black Coloradans in areas like housing, healthcare, education and incarceration.
Rep. Leslie Herod, a member of the Black Caucus, is one of the sponsors behind a recently-introduced bill that would launch a government-backed study into the the legacy of slavery, ongoing systemic racism and their impacts on the state’s Black community.
“There has been a deep denialism of discrimination and the impact that has on people today,” Herod told KUNC. “We hope this data will bring to the forefront the truth and the reality that systemic racism still has an impact on people right now, and that it is incumbent upon us to do something about it.”
Colorado has a long history of racism. At the beginning of the 20th century, the state was home to several high-profile lynchings and a strong white supremecist presence. In the 1920’s the Ku Klux Klan infiltrated state politics, with Klan member Clarence Morely becoming governor in 1925.
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Like across much of the U.S., so-called “sundown towns” — all-white communities that refused to serve or accept Black people, often with threats of violence —were also fairly common in Colorado through much of the 20th century.
“The racism that we face today does not look like what it looked like in 1964, 1944 or 1904,” Black Caucus Chair Rep. Jennifer Bacon said. “But it persists.”
Data from advocacy groups already demonstrates that Black Coloradans face disparities in areas like healthcare and housing. The Colorado Children’s Campaign found that the state’s Black infant mortality rate is seven times higher than white infants, and according to the Colorado Association of Realtors, 70% of White Coloradans own a home while only 42% of Black Coloradans do, the biggest gap in the last decade. Racial disparities also exist in other areas like education, criminal justice and incarceration.
“We've had 300 years of discriminatory laws,” Bacon said. “I'm interested in the data that says this is what happens when you redline communities. This is what happens when you limit resources into segregated neighborhoods.”
Sadé Cooper is with the Denver-based Collaborative Healing Initiative Within Communities, or CHIC, and is working on the bill with the Black Caucus. For her, collecting hard data is an important starting point for further action.
“I feel like we can't have the conversation if we're just hypothetically thinking, or if we don't know if I'm speaking from a place of belief, and not facts,” Cooper said. “To start talking about it, the elephant in the room, is a good step. We should know our history, not be afraid of it.”
On top of collecting data, the study would also come up with policy solutions for closing the racial gaps. The state’s historical society, History Colorado, would be in charge of conducting the study. The bill also creates the Black Coloradan racial equity steering committee to advise History Colorado, which will be made up of lawmakers, community members and legal, economic and historical experts, appointed by the governor, Speaker of the House and President of the Senate.
The study would be supported by fundraising, rather than an appropriation from the state budget, and is contingent on History Colorado receiving $100,000 in gifts, grands and donations.
The racial disparity study bill will have its first legislative hearing on February 1. The Black Caucus is also planning to introduce other bills to address inequities, including one specifically targeted at Black maternal mortality.
