Fannie Mae Duncan (1918-2005) was an African-American entrepreneur, philanthropist, and community activist in Colorado Springs, Colorado. She is best known as the proprietor of the Cotton Club, an early integrated jazz club in Colorado Springs named for the famous club in Harlem. [1]
In 2012, Duncan was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame. She was recognized for "her courageous stand fostered the peaceful integration of Colorado Springs." [2]
Fannie Mae Bragg was born on July 5, 1918, in Luther, Oklahoma. Her parents, Herbert and Mattie Brinson Bragg, had worked as sharecroppers in Oklahoma. [3] She was one of seven children, [2] all of whom helped with the work. From an early age, Fannie Mae wanted to help at the farm stand and sell produce; her father encouraged this entrepreneurial inclination. [3] In 1926, Herbert Bragg died from injuries sustained in an automobile accident.
Frances Bragg-Payne was the first sibling to arrive in Colorado Springs who then sent for the rest of her family. Her mother moved the family to Colorado in 1933, including her brother, Cornelius Bragg. Five years later, she was the first in her family to graduate from high school; she attended Colorado Springs High School. [2]
After she married Edward Duncan, Mrs. Duncan worked with the military in Colorado Springs during World War II. At Camp Carson, she opened a soda fountain at the facility established for African-American soldiers called Haven Club. [2] Flip Wilson was stationed at the camp and Duncan said that she gave him his first chance to perform. [4] She opened a United Service Organizations (USO) center, after convincing the city manager to issue her a business license, [2] at a time when it was very rare for African-Americans, particularly African-American women, to own a business on base. [4]
In 1948, Duncan opened The Cotton Club to serve people irrespective of their ethnic heritage. Her customers included soldiers and their brides. Among the notable people that played at the jazz club included Duke Ellington, Etta James, Lionel Hampton, Mahalia Jackson, Billie Holiday, Muddy Waters, and Count Basie. [2] [4] At the time, hotels in the city would not serve African-Americans and she bought a historic mansion to provide lodging for performers and other visitors, including Medgar Evers. [2] [4]
It was standard practice for blacks to enter restaurants through rear doors and sit in balconies of theaters. [4] Duncan's business approach was that she wanted to serve people of color, while also serving white people. Denying whites admittance to the Cotton Club, she felt meant that she would be denying their constitutional rights. This raised objections among local authorities, but she took a stand and peacefully provided for integrated patronage of the club. [2] One of the concerned individuals was I.B. Bruce, the police chief. Nicknamed "Dad", Bruce became a good friend of Duncans and was successful in ensuring that there was no trouble at the business. Duncan worked out a deal with Bruce wherein patrons were free to mingle without interference, and in return Duncan tipped them off if she saw a customer they were looking for. To ensure safety, Duncan did not serve people who had too much to drink or were making trouble; she also hired her own security. [1] [4] To promote inclusiveness, she had a permanent sign in the club's window, "Everybody's Welcome" [2] Due to urban renewal, the club closed in 1975 and the club at a new location was unsuccessful. [4]
She was active in civic organizations, often the first woman to become a member. She donated the first iron lung in the city and was a fundraiser for medical research. She was cofounder of the Sickle Cell Anemia Association chapter in the city and the philanthropic 400 Club. [2] [4] Duncan provided for college educations and was a mentor and role model. [2]
Duncan died on September 13, 2005 in Denver. [4] Although she had no children of her own, she maintained close relationships with many nieces and nephews. In her later years, she raised one of her nieces as her daughter from infancy into adulthood. [4] Her husband, Edward Duncan, a porter for the railroad, died in 1957. [4]
The annual multicultural event, "Everybody Welcome", honors Duncan's business and civic career. [2] In 2012, Duncan was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame. She was recognized for her role in fostering the racial integration. [2]
Scouting in Colorado has a long history, from the 1910s to the present day, serving thousands of youth in programs that suit the rugged, mountainous environment in which they live.
Mae Carol Jemison is an American engineer, physician, and former NASA astronaut. She became the first black woman to travel into space when she served as a mission specialist aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour. Jemison joined NASA's astronaut corps in 1987 and was selected to serve for the STS-47 mission, during which she orbited the Earth for nearly eight days on September 12–20, 1992.
Frances Wisebart Jacobs was born in Harrodsburg, Kentucky, to Jewish Bavarian immigrants and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio. She married Abraham Jacobs, the partner of her brother Jacob, and came west with him to Colorado where Wisebart and Jacobs had established businesses in Denver and Central City. In Denver, Frances Jacobs became a driving force for the city's charitable organizations and activities, with national exposure. Among the philanthropical organizations she founded, she is best remembered as a founder of the United Way and the Denver's Jewish Hospital Association.
Rachel Bassette Noel was an American educator, politician and civil rights leader in Denver, Colorado. She is known for the "Noel Resolution", a 1968 plan to integrate the Denver city school district, and her work to implement that plan, as well as other work on civil rights. When elected to the Denver Public Schools Board of Education in 1965, Noel was the first African-American woman elected to public office in Colorado. In 1996, Noel was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame.
Mary Lou Makepeace is an American politician who served as the mayor of Colorado Springs, Colorado from 1997 to 2003. She was the first woman to hold that position.
Pikes Peak is the highest summit of the southern Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, in North America. The ultra-prominent 14,115-foot (4,302.31 m) fourteener is located in Pike National Forest, 12 miles (19 km) west of downtown Colorado Springs, Colorado. The mountain is named in honor of American explorer Zebulon Pike. The summit is higher than any point in the United States east of its longitude.
The Colorado Women's Hall of Fame is a non-profit, volunteer organization that recognizes women who have contributed to the history of the U.S. state of Colorado. As of 2020, 170 women have been inducted.
Justina Laurena Ford was an American physician. She was the first licensed African American female doctor in Denver, Colorado, and practiced gynecology, obstetrics, and pediatrics from her home for half a century.
Elizabeth Piper Ensley, was an educator and an African-American suffragist. Born in Massachusetts, Ensley was a teacher on the eastern coast of the country. She moved to Colorado where she achieved prominence as a leader in the Colorado suffrage movement. She was also a journalist, activist, and a leader and founder of local women's clubs.
Gloria Travis Tanner is a former United States politician and public figure. In 1994 she became the first African American woman to serve as a Colorado state senator. In 2000 she founded a leadership and training institute for black women in Colorado. She was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 2002.
Edwina Hume Fallis was an American educator, writer, poet, and toy designer. Her memoir for children, When Denver and I Were Young (1956), went through two printings, and she published over 100 poems. She was posthumously inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 1989.
Sarah Sophia Chase Platt-Decker was an American suffragist. Mostly active in Denver, Colorado, she also served as the national president of the Federation of Associated Women's Clubs from 1904 to 1908.
Genevieve Fiore (1912–2002) was an American women's rights and peace activist, who was the founder, and served as the executive director, of the Colorado Division of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Her UNESCO Club was founded in the year the clubs were first conceived and was the third organization established in the world. In 1967 she was honored as one of the inductees for the Colorado Women of Achievement Award. She was knighted by Italy in 1975 receiving the rank of Cavaliere dell'Ordine della Stella d'Italia. In 1991, she was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame for her many years of peace activism and work with women's rights issues.
Joan Packard Birkland was an American athlete and women's sports advocate. Considered one of Colorado's greatest all-around athletes, she earned multiple titles in women's amateur tennis and golf championships at the city and state level. Following her retirement from competition, she served on numerous sports boards and became involved in sports education for disabled youth. She was inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 1977, the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame in 1981, and the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 1996.
Gudrun "Gudy" Gaskill was an American mountaineer who is regarded as the driving force behind the creation of the Colorado Trail, a 567-mile (912 km) hiking, biking, and horseback riding path between Denver and Durango, Colorado. Beginning in the 1970s, she helped plan out the route, solicited donations, and recruited teams of volunteers to work in one-week shifts developing the Trail each summer. She was named executive director of the newly formed Colorado Trail Foundation in 1987. She was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 2002.
Fannie Eller Lorber was a Russian-born philanthropist and community activist. She founded the Denver Sheltering Home for Jewish Children, later known as the National Home for Jewish Children.
Oleta Lawanda Crain was an African-American military officer, federal civil servant, and advocate for black women's rights and desegregation. Out of 300 women nationwide who entered officer training in the U.S. military in 1943, she was one of the three African Americans. She served in the United States Air Force for 20 years, retiring with the rank of major. In 1964 she began working for the United States Department of Labor in Washington, D.C., becoming regional administrator of its Women's Bureau in Denver, Colorado, in 1984. She traveled and spoke extensively to women about employment rights, wages, and career opportunities. She received numerous awards and honors, and was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 1988.
Pauline Short Robinson (1915–1997) was an American librarian and civil rights activist. She was the first African American to be hired as a librarian in the city of Denver, Colorado. During her 36-year career with the Denver Public Library system, she worked in several branches and served as Coordinator of Children Services for 15 years. In 1996 the Denver Public Library named a newly built branch in Northeast Park Hill in her honor. She was posthumously inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 2000.
History of slavery in Colorado began centuries before Colorado achieved statehood when Spanish colonists of Santa Fe de Nuevo México (1598–1848) enslaved Native Americans, called Genízaros. Southern Colorado was part of the Spanish territory until 1848. Comanche and Utes raided villages of other indigenous people and enslaved them.
Arie Parks Taylor was the first African American woman to become a Women in the Air Force classroom instructor and officer and the first African-American woman elected to the Colorado State House of Representatives.
| General | |
|---|---|
| National libraries | |
| Other | |
