King Harris, pastor of Epworth United Methodist Church in historic Five Points, Denver, says integration has been both a good and bad thing for the Black community in Denver (Photo Credit: David L. Roberts)
By Zenitha Prince
Washington Bureau Chief
DENVER (Aug. 24) – Over the past 48 years, King Harris, has seen his neighborhood fade to a ghostly image of itself. Denver’s Five Points, a historically Black neighborhood, had over time lost the people, culture and economic base that had once defined it; turned by gentrification into a mere statistic. “I was part of that change,” says Harris, 68, pastor of Five Points’ Epworth United Methodist Church. “I used to redevelop houses and I sold 24 houses in two years—only three of those were to Black people. Now, this community is Black only in a historical sense.”
The gentrification of Five Points and the demographic trends in Denver as a whole is a study in integration, a social phenomenon often viewed through lens of many hues. “It’s all in your perspective, because if you talk to older people they’re resentful of the gentrification and of change,” says Councilman Michael Hancock of the 11th District. “But, if you talk to someone in my generation—I’m 39 years old—that represents progress to me—the ability to go where I want to go and live where I want to live.”
For Blacks in Denver, as elsewhere, that was not always the case. Though Denver has been fairly progressive in terms of advancing equal opportunity – the majority White city has elected an African-American and a Latino as mayor – at one time, it corralled its Black citizens into enclaves such as Five Points, Park Hill, Montbello and Green Valley Ranch.
“Black progress is a tale of two cities. On the one hand, Blacks can be anywhere in the city and they are professional athletes, attorneys, doctors… there are others who are not doing as well…”
Living in near isolation, Blacks created a social and economic microcosm of their own and Five Points was its center. There, at the five-way intersection formed at Welton, 27th Street, E. 26th Avenue and Washington Street, which gives it its name, Black businesses flourished. And famous Black musicians such as Lena Horne, Dizzy Gillepsie and others, who were barred from sleeping in the White hotels where they performed, would seek accommodations in Five Points, often playing for their keep and consequently, making the area a rich cultural hub.
“Five Points really became the cultural heart and apex of the African-American community back in the ‘40s, ‘50s, ‘60s,” Councilman Hancock recalls. “On Saturday, it’s where you went to party. But it was also where you could have a family outing even though it was a few blocks from home. “That’s where on Sunday, after church, all the Black families in their Sunday finest would come to have dinner—great fried chicken or catfish and macaroni and cheese—or stroll and enjoy good jazz.”
Still, the lure of integration was great, and for Blacks in Denver, it meant moving up to the east side, leaving all of that behind. “Every time we moved farther east, it represented progress,” Hancock says.
Rev. Harris explained that when he tried to sell property in Five Points to Blacks, they would demur, saying, “‘I was born and raised here, I don’t want to live down here.’ Now, they can’t [even if they wanted to.]” Harris says integration has been a two-edge sword. “When we were working for integration, we did not see that far,” he recalls. “I thought it was good for the community. I didn’t realize it was going to kill the businesses. There are no real Black businesses in Five Points [now] unless they’re selling food or cutting hair.”
A walk along Welton Street past rows of empty storefronts attest to that. Across the street light rail trains rattle by, a sign of modern progress—in most cases. But for John DeCluette, 64, a longtime resident of East Denver, it is a specter of Five Points’ decline. “They said the light rail would revitalize the Points but it really killed it,” he says. “A lot of businesses closed up because people couldn’t get to the businesses because of all the construction.”
Minerva Smith, the “queen of hats” has observed the change from her perch on Welton Street, where her hat business is located. “People should be able to come here on a Friday evening, browse here, listen to some jazz…but what do we have? Nothing. There’s no foot traffic,” she says from the inside of her colorful street festival booth, where her wares are displayed in the outer court of the Five Points Plaza.
The aging of longtime Black business owners is part of the problem, she says. On either side of her store, businesses that served the community for 50 and 60 years are now boarded up because the shop owners died. “Not planning this area into the redevelopment of the city has left us ailing in historic Five Points,” says Smith, whose business has thrived because of her ability to market her hats to sororities and churches and otherwise seek opportunities outside the neighborhood. “You would think that because this was a historic area they would have paid more attention.”
But even as Black businesses in Five Points faltered, African Americans thrived— elsewhere. Since Blacks first began to trickle into the area to work for railroads and in mining camps in the mid-19th century, Denver has always represented a gold mine of opportunity.
Representing about 11 percent of the city’s population, Denver’s African-American community has the lowest rate of poverty in the nation, according to 2000 Census figures. And a plethora of federal jobs and employment opportunities in telecommunications, trade and other industries make Blacks here among the most highly educated and affluent African-American communities in the nation. Denver’s Blacks have a median income $30,775, which is above the national median.
Blacks in Denver also have a strong political history, said Wellington Webb, the first Black mayor of the city. In addition to a Black mayor, he said, the city has seen two Black lieutenant governors, Black City Council presidents, city clerks and more. “Black progress is a tale of two cities,” said Webb, now president of the Colorado Black Chamber of Commerce. “One the one hand, Blacks can be anywhere in the city and they are professional athletes, attorneys, doctors…they are doing extremely well economically. [But] there are others who are not doing as well. They face homelessness, drug addiction; there are young grandmothers in their 30s, some children who can’t read.”
Councilman Hancock says a community loses a lot when he it lacks cohesion.
“Because the African-American community has such a sustainable income it is very mobile. So we don’t really have a physical Black community; we’re all over the place,” he says. “It is unfortunate in one sense because we begin to lose the historical connection to communities that our parents grew up in and have talked so glowingly about but, it is positive in a sense that African Americans have obtained the ability to live and move wherever they want to,” he opines. “And, they are choosing places where there are stronger schools, where they are in closer proximity to their employment centers and that’s positive; that’s what Dr. King and his contemporaries fought for.”
There are political consequences as well. Several historically Black seats in the City Council—like Five Points’—and even the state’s House of Representatives are now filled by Whites. Alvertis Simmons, president of the Denver Million Family March and a longtime community activist, sees a need for a strong Black community. Click here to play video