PRIMARY SOURCE MATERIALS

Black newspapers in Colorado Springs

The Colorado Springs Eagle, Volume 1, No. 21, Saturday, July 27, 1912. Edited by Julia Embry.
Digitized 7/2020.

The Voice of Colorado, 1936-1937, incomplete. Edited by Tandy Stroud.
April 10 - September 4, 1936 (tabloid-size newspaper format) digitized 9/2020.
October 29, 1936 - April 10, 1937 (legal-size newsletter format) digitized 9/2020.
Note: cut-off text at top of some issues matches originals. Library has Volume 1, issues 1-18 (April 10 – December, 1936), lacking 15; issue 14 misnumbered 13. Volume 2, issues 1-3 (January 1, 8, 15, 1937); three unnumbered issues (March 27, April 3, April 10, 1937).

Colorado Springs Crusader, Volume 1, No. 2, May 12, 1982. Edited by Dorothy Middleton.
Digitized 7/2020.

African American Voice, four issues: September 2008, January 2009, January 2011, October 2012. Print only. Founded by James Tucker in 1991. Current issues are online at https://africanamericanvoice.net/.

seeking:
The Enterprise. Edited by P.S. Simpson, pre-1900. Referenced in Black Settlers of the Pikes Peak Region, p. 8.
Colorado Springs Sun. Edited by Z.M. Booker with W.H. Duncan as City Editor, pre-1900. Referenced in BSPPR, p. 8.
Colorado Springs Light. Founded and edited in 1908 by Frederick Roberts, CC class of 1906. This microfilm includes a paper called The Light, but it's a Vicksburg, Mississippi publication, not the one we are seeking.
See Wikipedia for more Black newspapers in Colorado Springs and Colorado.

Colorado College publications

Black Literary Magazine (1978, 1981)
Fight the Power (independent student-produced newsletter, 1991-1994)

Oral Histories

Effie Evelyn Stroud Frazier, CC class of 1931, interviewed 1980. Effie Stroud Frazier, (CC class of 1931) was one of the first African-American women to attend Colorado College and one of seven members of the well-known Stroud family to attend Colorado College. She was the first recipient of the Sachs scholarship. In her interview, Effie Frazier discusses race relations in Colorado Springs during the Depression and her experiences as a minority student at Colorado College.

Raymond Dean Jones, CC class of 1967, interviewed 1980. Raymond D. Jones (CC class of 1967) was born in Pueblo, Colorado on November 30, 1945. While at Colorado College, Jones was the first African-American president of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. After graduating from Colorado College, he received his law degree from Harvard University in 1971. At the time of this interview he was a judge in the Denver District Court, appointed by Governor Richard Lamm. Jones's interview focuses on campus life in the 1960s, attitudes about civil rights in Colorado Springs, and experiences from the perspective of a minority student.

Untold Stories project, 2018-ongoing. (Colorado College oversees this.)

Manuscript Materials

1882 map of Colorado Springs with autograph additions showing "residence of Black population 1879, 1882, 1886, 1888, 1890." Van Diest Papers, Ms 0233, Map Case Drawer 16. We don't know much about this map. It was probably traced from another map in this folder, Map of the City of Colorado Springs, W.P. Jewett, civil engineer, May 1882. The autograph additions were likely made using early CS directories, which designated Black residents with abbreviations such as "col'd" (see listings for Chas. R. Robinson and Walter Davis in the 1879-80 directory, for example). Digitized 7/2020.

Stroud Papers, Ms 0329. Stroud Family materials, including Kelley Dolphus Stroud's memoir manuscript, correspondence, family newsletters 1958-1977, and related materials. We hope to have transcriptions online soon in 2025! CC library record.

Samuel J. Goering, "A Study of Race Prejudice with Special Reference to Colorado Springs," Colorado College Pyschology thesis, 1936.

Black Student Union Time Capsule of 2018. Ms Box 405. CC library record.

BOOKS / SECONDARY MATERIALS (SELECTED)

Carrie L. Barnhill, editor / William T. Barnhill, associate editor. Barnhill's El Paso County Directory. Afro-Americana. Businesses and Organizations 1994-95. Colorado Springs, Colorado and Vicinity. Colorado Springs: Barnhill's Enterprises, 1987. CC library record.

John Stokes Holley. The Invisible People of the Pikes Peak Region: An Afro-American Chronicle. Colorado Springs: Friends of the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum / Friends of the Pikes Peak Library District, 1990. CC library record.

Negro Historical Association of Colorado Springs. Yearbook. 1982-1984 (two volumes). Colorado Springs: NHACS, 1983-84. CC library records for 1982 and 1983-1984.

Negro Historical Association of Colorado Springs. Black Settlers of the Pikes Peak Region, 1850-1899. Colorado Springs: NHACS, 1986. Digitized 11/2020.

Who's Who in Black Colorado Springs. Colorado Springs: 1976. CC library record.

For Colorado College history, use the Race, Ethnicity, and Migration Studies Research Guide, which includes links to CC yearbooks and student newspapers, college demographics, and more.

For more information on Colorado Springs Black History, contact the African-American Historical & Genealogical Society of Colorado Springs (AAHGSCS).

This website was first created by Special Collections staff in July of 2020.