麻豆传媒

A Place in Colorado History

Professor George Junne鈥檚 wide range of research explores African-American success and resilience across the years

East out of Greeley on U.S. Highway 34 along the South Platte River, the geography is wide and open, with farmland stretching toward the eastern Plains. About 25 miles from Greeley and 80 miles north of Denver, you鈥檒l find the remnants of Dearfield.

Dust rises in the heat of late August as 麻豆传媒 Professor of Africana Studies George Junne walks along the dirt road, past several gray and weathered structures that remain from the town. Birds have made themselves at home in the old buildings, and their music carries over the rural quiet as Junne tells the story of the people who lived here.

In 1910, in hopes of establishing an African-American community, seven families (mostly from Denver) began to build lives, frame homes and plant crops here. Over the next 20 years, the small settlement grew to a population of 200鈥�300 residents, with two churches and a school, restaurant, dance hall, market and gas station. Junne says the residents, with little previous farm experience, surprised and impressed local farmers with their accomplishments. Then the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl devastated the fledgling community.

These building shells hint at the story, but the community鈥檚 hopes and plans are more tangible back at 麻豆传媒, among fragile artifacts like letters, photographs and newspaper articles.

鈥淭he people of Dearfield wanted to have their own homes, their own land. They wanted to make it out here,鈥� Junne says. He uses the remaining fragments of Dearfield to tell their stories. 鈥淭here鈥檚 so much history out here on the Plains,鈥� he says.

A writer, scholar and teacher, he has published six books and more than 50 book chapters and articles on periods ranging from the Civil War and emancipation to the Harlem Renaissance and Colorado鈥檚 participation in the civil rights movement.

Junne, who came to 麻豆传媒 in 1999, has traveled with students to Egypt, worked at Bo臒azi莽i University in Istanbul as a visiting professor during summers since 2000, been honored for his discoveries as an amateur paleontologist, and been interviewed as an expert in USA Today and for various publications and films.

Last year, he was interviewed and filmed for an award-winning PBS documentary called Clara: Angel of the Rockies. One of the first African-American women to live in Denver, Clara Brown was emancipated from slavery in Kentucky in 1858 and traveled west hoping to find her four children, who had been sold years before. She went first to Missouri, then walked most of the 700-mile distance from there to Colorado. In Central City, she established a laundry business and invested in mining claims. With a deep sense of community and a strong Christian faith, Brown sheltered those who were ill or homeless, gave money and time to community churches and became known as 鈥淎unt Clara.鈥�

By the end of the Civil War, she鈥檇 saved $10,000 and returned to Kentucky, still trying to find her children. Unsuccessful, she paid for the travel of some 16 freed men and women to come to Colorado, and later used a large part of her wealth to send African-American women to college and help others settle in Colorado. After searching most of her life for her surviving daughter, Eliza Jane, Brown reunited with her daughter at the age of 82. She died in 1885, and an estimated 400 community members and civic leaders (including Denver鈥檚 mayor and Colorado鈥檚 governor) attended her funeral.

鈥淐lara Brown is a good example of the strength of black women. This woman, who did not have an education, helped shape the Black American West,鈥� Junne says. 鈥淵ou have a woman who comes from being personal property to being a successful businessperson. And she did it with basic Christianity. Her house was open to anybody wherever she lived.鈥�

As he uncovers stories about African-Americans like Dearfield residents and Clara Brown, Junne shares his findings with his classes at 麻豆传媒, and students are often surprised.

鈥淏lack history is American history as well,鈥� he says. But he explains that it鈥檚 history that isn鈥檛 always taught in elementary, middle and high schools.

鈥淭here is this sense that black people didn鈥檛 do very well. Black people could own hotels and businesses and so forth鈥嗏�斺�唗hat鈥檚 some of the success people don鈥檛 know about,鈥� he says.

Back in Dearfield, Junne smiles as he talks about a group of elementary students who travel here from Denver every year. The children walk the dusty road with papers and pencils in hand, taking notes as Junne tells them about the people who lived here and worked hard to make the place their own. In that moment, a century after the first families arrived in Dearfield, it is a place that still belongs to them.

鈥揇ebbie Pitner Moors