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The Diverse West

July 14, 2010 NEH Seminar Modupe Labode. The Diverse West. Some Ideas to Keep in Mind When Thinking about Race and the West. The West—a wide and varied place—has always been multiracial. Race is a historical construct; it is not a biological reality.

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The Diverse West

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  1. July 14, 2010 NEH Seminar Modupe Labode The Diverse West

  2. Some Ideas to Keep in Mind When Thinking about Race and the West • The West—a wide and varied place—has always been multiracial. • Race is a historical construct; it is not a biological reality. • Racism is a tricky critter—it hides, masquerades, and appears where you least expect it. • The past does not look like the present. This and other images from photoswest.org, Denver Public Library

  3. Quintard Taylor • Professor of American History at University of Washington • Incoming president of the Western History Association • Creator of website: blackpast.org

  4. Sources for the Diverse West: • Sanborn Maps • Census Data • Newspapers • Photographs • City Directories

  5. 1900 Census: Colorado • Colorado Population: • Total: 589,000 • White: 529,049 • Negro: 8,570 • “Indians”: 1,337 • Chinese: 599 • Japanese: 48 • Image: Gilpin School, Denver

  6. Census Questions: Chinese in Colorado • Table 20: Chinese in Denver • 1880: 612 • 1890: 1,398 • 1900: 599 • Peak of Chinese population in the 1880s • Chinese Exclusion Act, 1882 Chinese American home, Denver, ca. 1914

  7. Chinese Float, Festival of Mountain and Plain, Denver, ca. 1900

  8. Hop Alley, Denver (between Market and Blake, east of 20th), ca. 1929

  9. Chinese Variety Store, Denver, ca. 1910-1915

  10. Census Questions: Japanese in Colorado • Table 21: Census—Japanese in Colorado • 1880? • 1890: 9 • 1900: 48 • Baseball Team: Denver, 1910-1920

  11. Group in front of Colorado Times office, 1930 Larimer, ca. 1916-1920

  12. Barber Shop, Denver, ca. 1910-1915

  13. Five Points • One of the earliest “streetcar suburbs” in Denver. • Gradually became less well-heeled and more diverse throughout the nineteenth century • Architecture reveals its past • The majority of Denver’s African Americans lived in Five Points, but was not wholly African American

  14. Denver View, Five Points, ca. 1880

  15. 29th and Stout, Denver, ca. 1880

  16. Gilpin School, 1898

  17. Gilpin School, ca. 1905

  18. Whittier School, ca. 1915

  19. Sarah Breedlove • Born in Louisiana in 1867 • Moved to St. Louis with her young daughter, Lelia. • Worked as a washerwoman, and began selling Annie Pope-Turnbo’s hair care product. • Moved to Denver in 1905.

  20. Sarah Breedlove in Denver • Settled with family • “Politics of Respectability” • Adopted the name Madam C.J. Walker Image from Library of Congress

  21. Madam C.J. Walker • Left Denver in 1906 • In 1907 she made $3,653, about 3 times more than she made in 1906 • Settled in Indianapolis in 1910 • Died in 1919

  22. Advertisement for Madam Walker Hair Care Products

  23. Denver Park, ca. 1910

  24. Clarence Holmes and friend, Denver, ca. 1898-1902.

  25. AmacheOchinee Prowers • Born in the 1840s • Father, Ochinee, was a Cheyenne sub-chief. • Married John Prowers, a trader from Missouri • Called “Amy” • Individuals who identify as white and Cheyenne include her in their family tree

  26. Japanese Internment Camp in Colorado: Camp Amache • The Homma Children, interned in Colorado. From the Denver Post, July 4, 2009Homma Children • Official name: Granada • Name chosen to honor or acknowledge Amache Prowers

  27. Hattie McDaniel: 1893-1950 • Parents were born into slavery. Henry McDaniel, her father, served in the Union Army. • Family left Tennessee in 1879—Exodusters • Hattie born in Kansas, the youngest child. • Family moved to Denver in 1890.

  28. McDaniel Family in Denver • Father worked as laborer; mother as laundress, cook, maid • Attended 24th Street School (pictured here) and East High School • Dreams of show business • Married Howard Hickman when she was 17 • Finally left Denver in 1925, when she was in her 30s. • Made it to Hollywood in the early 1930s.

  29. Hattie McDaniel won an Oscar for playing Mammy in Gone With the Wind

  30. Sanborn Map: Muncie, Indiana • Image from Ball State University • D = Dwelling • S=Store • Street numbers • Stables, sheds, outbuildings • Stories in structure • Alleys, water hydrants, road surfaces, etc.

  31. Sanborn Map, 1890, LoDo, Denver

  32. Sanborn Maps: Denver • 1340-1344 Pennsylvania Avenue—Vol. 3, 1904, Sheet #342 • 30th & Downing, Vol. 3, Sheet #216

  33. Implications and Considerations? • Other people to consider, for the case of Denver: • Paul Laurence Dunbar, who spent time in Denver around 1900, in search for a cure for TB • Emily French, whose diary describes working class life in Denver, 1890.

  34. Thank you!

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