In general, Black, Latiné, and Asian communities faced serious and persistent housing discrimination through the first half of the 20th century, including the lynching of a Chinese immigrant in 1880, a sustained bombing campaign against African Americans perceived to be encroaching on white neighborhoods in the 1920s, and the wholesale destruction of multiple Latiné enclaves through urban renewal. Though all groups faced these forces, white Denverites seemed to concentrate their greatest fears of integration on Black people and reserve the most consistent levels of violence for them as well. It should be noted that though not featured prominently in this blog, Native Americans were also decimated by massacres and mass displacement from the area that became Denver during the 19th century.¹

 

African Americans in Metro Denver

• African Americans have been in the Denver area since the mid-1800s. Early Black communities were concentrated in Five Points and what is now the Cherry Creek shopping center.²
• By the 1910s, white neighborhoods formed groups to lobby for a racist zoning law that ultimately failed in 1916.
• The 1920s were also marked by an organized bombing campaign against Black residents who dared to challenge the segregation boundary between Five Points and Whittier.³ 
• Racially restrictive covenants also expanded rapidly in the 1920s and 1930s. Researchers have identified hundreds in Denver applied between 1931-1935⁴ and in 82 restricted subdivisions in Jefferson County.⁵ 
• Five Points and Whittier continued to be the center of the Black community in Denver through the 1940s, though the 1938 Denver Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) map also identifies small numbers of African Americans in Cherry Creek (D-2), South Denver (D-3), Englewood (D-4), Valverde (D-7), Jefferson Park (D-9), and Elyria-Swansea (D-15)--all redlined sections of the map.⁶
• In the 1950s, realtors began making huge profits by blockbusting in Park Hill. They used the fear of Black neighbors to scare white homeowners into selling their homes for cheap and then flipped those same homes to Black homebuyers for far more.⁷
• Some white Park Hill residents resisted the block busting and helped organize the Park Hill Action Committee, later becoming the Greater Park Hill Community, Inc., with their new Black neighbors.⁸ Despite their efforts, the neighborhood never fully integrated and is still split between a much Blacker and Browner northern half of the neighborhood and a much whiter southern half. 
• After the passage of the Fair Housing Act in 1968, even more African Americans with the means to move out of Five Points began to leave. Between 1959 and 1974 the neighborhood population shrunk dramatically from 32,000 people to 8,700 people.⁹
• This period was largely characterized by disinvestment, as the lowest income residents remained while buildings fell into disrepair and some were demolished. This disinvestment then set the scene for the dramatic gentrification of Five Points and its surrounding neighborhoods, beginning in the 1990s.¹⁰

 

Latiné Communities in Metro Denver 

• Mexican immigrants who first settled in the southern part of the state began migrating to Denver in significant numbers during the Great Depression. At the time, generalized anti-Mexican sentiment culminated in a short-lived effort by Governor Edwin Johnson to seal the southern border of the state in 1936.¹¹
• Mexicans migrating to Denver at this time largely settled in Auraria. The area initially included many working-class English, German, Irish, and Jewish families. Oral history interviews with former residents of Auraria who moved there in the 1930s suggest that there were few other parts of the city where they would have been accepted.¹²
• The 1938 federal redlining map noted that Mexicans made up approximately 2% of the city’s population and were largely confined to four redlined neighborhoods: Auraria, Five Points, Sun Valley, and Jefferson Park.¹³
• Throughout the 1940s, many Mexican families settled in Auraria and then later spread to the southwest—to Lincoln Park, and then across the river to Barnum, Valverde, and eventually Westwood—or to the northeast, from Five Points, to Whittier, North Denver, and then Globeville and Elyria-Swansea.¹⁴ These expansion patterns generally followed the path of neighborhoods that had been redlined in 1938.
• Reports from social action agencies in the later part of the 1940s found discrimination against both African Americans and “Spanish Americans” in all facets of life, including housing.¹⁵
• In the early 1960s, the Denver Urban Renewal Authority’s first three projects (Avondale, Blake St., and Whittier) displaced 381 families and 48% were “Spanish American.”¹⁶
• The construction of I-25 and I-70 also displaced communities in Globeville and Elyria-Swansea that were becoming majority Mexican American. A 1979 Denver Post article suggested that “An army laying siege couldn’t be more effective [at closing the neighborhood off from its surroundings].”¹⁷
• The best known example of displacement of the Latiné community was the Auraria urban renewal project in the early 1970s, in which the City displaced 343 households and over 100 businesses, most of them Mexican Americans, to create the Auraria Campus.
• Since the passage of the Fair Housing Act, Denver has also seen significant immigration from other Latiné communities, including Puerto Ricans and Salvadorans and recent waves of Colombians, and Venezuelans, who have also been targets of housing discrimination.¹⁸

 

Asian Communities in Metro Denver

• By 1880, Denver had a bustling Chinatown in Lower Downtown between Wazee and Market Streets, but intense xenophobia confined residents to this area and white Denverites rioted that same year, destroying Chinese businesses, beating bystanders, and lynching one resident, Look Young.¹⁹
• White Denverites, even religious and labor leaders who might otherwise have been predisposed to speak up for the Chinese community, often perpetuated racist stereotypes and characterized them as scabs, undercutting labor efforts.²⁰
• Japanese immigrants faced similar racism in the early 20th Century and were confined to a neighboring part of Lower Downtown consisting of a few blocks of Larimer St.²¹ Both groups were also present in Five Points at the time.²²
• Federal racist immigration laws slowed Chinese immigration after 1882 and Japanese immigration after 1908.²³
• China’s role as an American ally during World War II shifted some perceptions of this community, though many still reported housing²⁴ and employment discrimination in the 1950s.²⁵
• In comparison, Japanese Americans in the West were forced into internment camps during the war,²⁶ and anti-Japanese sentiment fueled widespread discrimination immediately after the war. That included a 1950 case where the Veterans Administration rescinded a loan to a Japanese-American veteran trying to purchase a home covered by a racially restrictive covenant.²⁷
• Japantown was also the site of the Skyline urban renewal project that razed most of the area in 1967 and displaced 1,600 people. The Japanese American community was able to pool resources and purchase an entire square block at the center of the development that is now Sakura Square.²⁸
• Starting in the 1970s, Denver started to develop significant Indian, Filipino, and Korean communities as well and the center for Asian immigrants began to shift to Aurora and later to Little Saigon.²⁹

 

Similar Forces, Different Impact 

Though all non-white groups faced housing discrimination, white Denverites seemed to have the greatest fear of living near Black people. As an example, the majority (61%) of the covenants identified by the Denver Public Library specifically single out and bar “negroes” or “colored” people, whereas 39% restrict the property to anyone who is not “white,” “caucasion,” or “aryan,” suggesting a heightened fear of African Americans.³⁰

Homeownership rates also suggest that the lingering harms of segregation still fall most heavily on African Americans in the Metro Denver area, and continue to impact Latiné residents as well.³¹

Homeownership Rate, by Race/Ethnicity, 2021

Race	Rate
White	70%
Asian	65%
Asian Pacific Islander	56%
Native American	52%
Latiné	51%
African American	41%

 

Data on home values also suggest that Asian residents have largely caught up with their white counterparts, while Black, Native American, and Latiné residents remain behind. White and Asian homeowners in the area both typically own half-million dollar homes, with the difference between their median home values being within the margin of error.³² The difference between the median value of homes for Native Americans, African Americans, and Latiné homeowners is also within the margin of error, but all three tend to own homes that are roughly $100,000 less than those owned by white and Asian residents.

Current measures of segregation show similar disparities, with African Americans the most segregated from whites, Latiné communities moderately segregated, and Asian communities with a low segregation score.³³ The dissimilarity index measures how evenly a group is distributed geographically. Scores range from 0 to 100 and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) considers scores of 55 or higher an indicator of a high level of segregation, scores of 41-54 an indicator of moderate segregation, and scores of 40 and below an indicator of lower segregation.³⁴ In 2020, the Denver metro area’s White/Black dissimilarity index was 54, meaning that 54% of either white people or Black people would have to move to a different census tract for the two groups to be evenly distributed.³⁵

Metro Denver Dissimilarity Indexes, 2020

White/Black	54.0
White/Latiné	44.6
White/Asian	28.9

 

While a score of 54 is still high, the White/Black dissimilarity index has been steadily decreasing over the past 40 years from a score of 69.1 in 1980. The White/Latiné and White/Asian indexes have been relatively static, in comparison. This might suggest a trend toward African Americans becoming less segregated in the metro area, though at this rate it would be 2045 before the White/Black index matches the White/Latiné index and 2087 before it matches the White/Asian index. 

 

Join the movement!

With a clear understanding of past harm, we can all move forward together to build a more integrated and just Denver. Fill out the Denver Redress Movement’s volunteer form here.

 

You can also contact The Redress Movement’s Campaign Organizers for Denver at: 

Kevin Patterson, kpatterson@redressmovement.org, (720) 422-5340

Jon Marcantoni, jmarcantoni@redressmovement.org, (720) 259-7085

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Endnotes:

¹“The Sand Creek Massacre: The Betrayal that Changed Cheyenne and Arapaho People Forever,” History Colorado, 2025, www.historycolorado.org/exhibit/sand-creek-massacre-betrayal-changed-cheyenne-and-arapaho-people-forever. 

²“Five Points-Whittier Neighborhood History,” Denver Public Library; Kevin Beaty, “Cherry Creek transformed from one of Denver’s first black “colonies” to the high-end neighborhood you know today,” Denverite, March 20, 2017, https://denverite.com/2017/03/20/how-cherry-creek-transformed-from-one-of-denvers-first-black-colonies/. 

³“The Story of Segregation in Denver,” The Redress Movement, June 15, 2022, https://redressmovement.org/sm-den/. 

⁴Adison Quin Petti, “Mapping Prejudice in Denver,” Denver Public Library, April 4, 2023, https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/9cb051c73a874224a39259de8cc904ed. 

⁵Christopher Thiry, “Race-based property covenants in Jefferson County, Colorado,” Colorado School of Mines, June 2, 2023, https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/ac9e44dad1be4e04ac94fdb182f0c5d3. 

⁶“Mapping Inequality: Redlining in New Deal American, Denver, Colorado,” University of Richmond, 2025, https://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/redlining/map/CO/Denver/area_descriptions#loc=13/39.7448/-104.9828. 

⁷“Park Hill Neighborhood History,” Denver Public Library, 2025, https://history.denverlibrary.org/neighborhood-history-guide/park-hill-neighborhood-history. 

⁸“Park Hill Neighborhood History,” Denver Public Library, 2025, https://history.denverlibrary.org/neighborhood-history-guide/park-hill-neighborhood-history.

⁹“Five Points-Whittier Neighborhood History,” Denver Public Library, 2025, https://history.denverlibrary.org/neighborhood-history-guide/five-points-whittier-neighborhood-history. 

¹⁰“Displaced by Design: The Gentrification Machine and Its Human Cost,” The National Community Reinvestment Coalition mapping tool, 2025, https://ncrc.org/gd/.  

¹¹Carl Abbot, Stephen J. Leonard, Thomas J. Noel, Colorado: A History of the Centennial State, University Press of Colorado, 5th Edition, 2013, pg. 359. 

¹²Magdelena Gallegos, Auraria Remembered, Community College of Denver, 1991.

¹³R.L. Olson, HOLC Report #1: Report of a Survey in City and County of Denver, Colorado, Federal Home Loan Bank Board, Division of Research and Statistics, August 15, 1938.

¹⁴Colorado: A History…” pg. 359. 

¹⁵Colorado: A History…” pg. 359. 

¹⁶“Some Trade Old Slum for New, DURA Finds,” Denver Post, April 9, 1964, pg. 28. 

¹⁷Ryan Bell, “Elyria-Swansea,” Denver Public Library, 2025, https://history.denverlibrary.org/neighborhood-history-guide/elyria-swansea. 

¹⁸Natalia Marques, “How a New York landlord exploited anti-immigrant propaganda in Aurora, Colorado,” People’s Dispatch, September 10, 2024, https://peoplesdispatch.org/2024/09/10/how-a-new-york-landlord-exploited-anti-immigrant-propaganda-in-aurora-colorado/. 

¹⁹Roxana Soto, “‘Reclaiming Denver’s Chinatown’ Tells Story of Long Lost Neighborhood,” City of Denver, January 24, 2023, www.denvergov.org/Community/Neighborhoods/Stories/Documentaries/Historic-Chinatown-Denver-Hop-Alley-Chinese-Descendants. 

²⁰William Wei, Asians in Colorado: A History of Persecution and Perseverance in the Centennial State, University of Washington Press, March 2018, pg. 67.

²¹Asians in Colorado…” pg. 154. 

²²“Five Points-Whittier Neighborhood History,” Denver Public Library, 2025, https://history.denverlibrary.org/neighborhood-history-guide/five-points-whittier-neighborhood-history.  

²³Asians in Colorado…” pg. 154. 

²⁴Emily Maxwell, “After Fleeing Communism in China, Harry Jong Builds New Life in Denver,” DenverGov.gov, January 24, 2023, www.denvergov.org/Community/Neighborhoods/Stories/Documentaries/Historic-Chinatown-Denver-Hop-Alley-Chinese-Descendants/Harry-Jong-Escaped-Communism-China. 

²⁵Emily Maxwell, “Chinatown Descendant Recounts Family’s Struggles and Triumphs,” DenverGov.gov, January 24, 2023, www.denvergov.org/Community/Neighborhoods/Stories/Documentaries/Historic-Chinatown-Denver-Hop-Alley-Chinese-Descendants/Harry-Jong-Escaped-Communism-China. 

²⁶Asians in Colorado…” pg. 270.

²⁷“The Story of Segregation in Denver,” The Redress Movement, June 15, 2022, https://redressmovement.org/sm-den/.  

²⁸“Sakura Square,” Japanese American Society of Colorado, 2024, www.jascolorado.org/sakura-square. 

²⁹Asians in Colorado…” pg. 285. 

³⁰Redress Movement analysis of covenants catalogued by the Denver Public Library 1931-1935. 

³¹American Community Survey, 2021 5-year estimates, Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO Metro Area, Table B250031. 

³²American Community Survey, 2022 5-year estimates, Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO Metro Area, Table B25077H, adjusted for inflation to 2021.

³³“Diversity and Disparities: Residential Segregation,” Spatial Structures in the Social Sciences, Brown University, 2025, https://s4.ad.brown.edu/projects/diversity/segregation2020/Default.aspx?msa=19740.  

³⁴AFFH Data Documentation, HUD, June 2013, https://www.huduser.gov/publications/pdf/FR-5173-P-01_AFFH_data_documentation.pdf. 

³⁵“Diversity and Disparities: Residential Segregation,” Spatial Structures in the Social Sciences, Brown University, 2025, https://s4.ad.brown.edu/projects/diversity/segregation2020/Default.aspx?msa=19740.