Denver Public Library, Western History and Genealogy

From exploring the Colorado territory to fighting discrimination, to expanding voting rights, African American people have had a long and active role in shaping Colorado's past and present.

Explore the development of civil rights throughout Colorado and the United States of America.

Thanks to the all-Black Phyllis Wheatley branch of the YWCA and the vision of the Lincoln Hills Development Corporation, the YWCA established Camp Nizhoni at Lincoln Hills. The name comes from the Navajo word for “beautiful.” Segregation kept African American women and girls from attending the nearby YWCA girls’ camp at Lookout Mountain. So every summer, up to fifty girls went to Camp Nizhoni to hike, swim and learn outdoor skills. After 18 years in operation, Camp Nizhoni closed in 1945 with the integration of Camp Lookout.

In the early 1920s, Denver entrepreneur Obrey Wendell Hamlet, known as “Wink,” set out to build a resort in Lincoln Hills. He and first wife Naomi broke ground on a three-story, six-bedroom lodge in 1925 and finished it three years later. They officially named it Wink's Panorama, but everyone knew it as Wink's Lodge. Wink's Lodge was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980

Opened in 1922 by Black entrepreneurs from Denver’s Five Points neighborhood, Lincoln Hills was an oasis in a segregated society—the biggest resort west of the Mississippi built BY and FOR African Americans. People from across the country came to Lincoln Hills to camp, stay in Wink’s Lodge, or buy a lot and build a cabin.

There were no formal Jim Crow laws in Denver, home to Colorado’s largest African American community. But Black citizens still faced widespread discrimination in the early twentieth century. Denver’s Five Points neighborhood created a sense of community when people had trouble finding housing except in limited areas, were largely confined to low-paying jobs, and met with segregation in schools, parks, and other public places. CLICK ON THE STARTS TO EXPLORE DENVER IN THE 1920s.

Camp Nizhoni was founded in 1924 in response to the segregationist policies of the time, which prevented African American girls from attending the same YWCA camps as white children.

African American Cowboy, c. 1900, possibly taken around Leadville, Colorado.

10th Cavalry soldiers in uniform at Fort Washakie, Wyoming. More than 180,000 African Americans fought for the Union Army in the Civil War. Of them, more than 33,000 died. War’s end left the future of the Army’s African Americans in doubt.

Colorado has a long, rich history of African American owned businesses and enterprise. This history is best exhibited in communities such as Denver’s Five Points. Five Points became a central point for African Americans moving to Denver in the 1920s.

The early trappers and fur traders, who came to be known in the West as Mountain Men, were the pioneer explorers of Colorado.