COMMUNITY NEWS

Denver issues formal apology for history of

anti-Chinese racism Article and Photos By Gil Asakawa

Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) often feel invisible, ignored in the media, and treated like outsiders, always the “other.” But on Saturday, April 16, AAPIs knew they were seen and heard, and enjoyed the national spotlight of being in the middle of a big news story.

The City of Denver gave a formal apology letter for an anti-Chinese race riot that destroyed what had been a thriving Chinatown district in 1880. Most people today don’t even know there had been a Chinatown in Lower Downtown, or LoDo, which today is (in spite of lingering covid) a bustling nightlife haven anchored by Union Station, Coors Field where the Colorado Rockies baseball team plays, and Sakura Square, a hub for the city’s Japanese community.

On October 31, 1880, a fight broke out in a pool hall and spilled out into the streets, where thousands of Whites rampaged through Chinatown and lynched one Chinese man, Look Young, and hung him from a lamp post.

The Chinese were driven out but returned to rebuild their homes and businesses, although by the early 20th century they had dispersed and mostly moved away.

Now, Denver has become the fifth city in the U.S. to offer an official apology for past wrongs against Chinese and other Asian immigrants, with a heartfelt apology for the 1880 race riot and the anti-Asian racism throughout history even to today. The apology is especially significant because it’s the first one given by a city outside of California, where previous cities’ Asian populations can be more than 30 percent. Denver’s Asian population is less than four percent.

Mayor Michael B. Hancock gave prepared remarks and read the official apology letter to a full room at the University of Colorado Denver campus, and signed copies of the letter for two families who are descendants of Chinese who lived in Chinatown.

He also gave them commemorative gold community coins – an honor he said can only be bestowed by the sitting mayor. He also gave a copy of the apology and a coin to Colorado Asian Pacific United (CAPU), the organization that had brought the history of Chinatown to light since it was formed last year, and has worked to re-envision the cultural richness of the Chinese presence in Denver.

“Denver can deal with the continued consequences of past violence and discrimination such as the recent surge in anti-Asian hate crimes across the nation. As part of this process, the city is committed to supporting the establishment of an Asian Pacific Historic District, sponsoring the painting of public murals depicting the history and culture of Asian Pacific Coloradans, partnering on the development of a public education program about Asian Pacific Coloradans, and founding an Asian Pacific American community museum, which will be the first of its kind in the Rocky Mountain Region,” Hancock said.

The Mayor received applause throughout his remarks, but for the AAPI community leaders present, perhaps the most welcome news at the event was the announcement that the owner of a building near Coors Field that has sported the sole reminder of the once-thriving Chinatown: a racially insensitive “Lower Downtown Walking Tour” plaque, had agreed to allow the plaque to be removed. The members of CAPU, and the Denver AAPI Commission before them, had tried contacting the owner for permission to remove or replace the plaque, which has been on the building since 1992, for more than two years, but had never succeeded in getting any response. Denver’s new Chief Equity Officer, Aisha Rousseau, got the okay for the plaque to come down.

CAPU members are now planning a public event for the plaque’s removal, as well as how to move forward celebrating the history of Chinatown with new, more appropriate, and educational elements like kiosks and murals in the area.

The event ended with a raucous Lion Dance performance by Shaolin Hung Mei Kung Fu Academy.

Colorado Sikhs and partners launch new project to tell the stories and histories of the Sikh community

Have you ever wondered when Sikhs first came to Colorado? What did they do for work? Is the current history of the Sikh community being documented?

Colorado Sikhs, in collaboration with Alpine Archaeological Consultants and The Sikh American History Project, is excited to share their newest project to collect, document, and share the history of Sikhs in Colorado, a community that has experienced historical erasure.

With support from the State Historical Fund of Colorado, this project will build the capacity of the Sikh community to present and narrate their own stories, while reinforcing that the Sikh communi-

ty’s history is part of Colorado’s history.

The vision of this project first began in February 2021, when Tejpaul Singh Bainiwal, a PhD Candidate at University of California- Riverside, took part in a panel discussion at the Saving Places Conference, titled, “Preservation Education—Shaping the Future of a Movement.”

Here, Bainiwal spoke about Sikh American historic preservation and the lack of research about the Sikh American community, specifically in Colorado.

“There are certain aspects about Sikh American history that folks are aware of such as Stockton Gurdwara being the first gurdwara in the nation or Dalip Singh Saund becoming the first Asian American Member of Congress,” said Bainiwal.

“However, the history of Sikhs in Colorado has never been researched. I was fortunate enough to find one sentence in a book about Sikhs in Colorado in the early 1900s which eventually resulted in this grant. I’m excited to have a state-funded project that focuses solely on uncovering the history of Sikhs in Colorado!”

Michelle Slaughter, Regional Operations Manager at Alpine Archaeological Consultants (Alpine), attended the session and reached out to Bainiwal after his presentation, which resulted in a conversation about possibly conducting a statewide research project on the historic presence of Sikhs in Colorado. In collaboration with Sara Millward at Alpine and Colorado Sikhs, the team was formed to focus exclusively on the history of the community.

“We’re excited and honored to have this opportunity to collaborate with Colorado Sikhs. There’s so much information and so many stories left out of what is accepted as Colorado’s history. Losing those stories forever would be tragic, so now is the time to work with the Sikh community and fill in the gaps in our historic record,” said Slaughter and Millward.

During their initial research, the team discovered that prior to the 1950s, there were more newspaper references to Sikhs in small rural communities such as Rocky Ford in southeastern Colorado and Derby in Adams County, than in high population areas like Denver. While these references were not abundant, they suggest that Sikhs were practicing agriculture in rural communities then.

Today, Colorado is home to one of the fastest-growing populations of Sikhs in the United States. For instance, due to the growing IT sector and trucking industry, Colorado often serves as the main hub for other states with Sikhs, including Wyoming and New Mexico.

“I am beyond excited to see the Sikh community being represented through this historical research. Growing up here, I always assumed that the Sikh community has a rich history in places like Stockton or New York City, but never realized that we too, have a history here, and it is worth being celebrated,” shared Naureen Singh, Policy Director, Colorado Sikhs.

“Our community is visible and vibrant, and the time is now to collect and preserve our history.”

Colorado Sikhs is a community-based, nonprofit, 501(c)(3) organization founded in 2012 to serve the needs of the growing population of Sikhs in Colorado.

The mission of Colorado Sikhs is to promote diversity, understanding, and community development through education and civic engagement to create mutually respectful relationships with all Colorado citizens and communities.

To stay up to date with this project, visit

coloradosikhs.com.