Minority Groups and Immigration
At the turn of the 20th century, the city of Denver was far from a homogenous society. Whether foreign immigrants or native-born Americans, the varied ancestry of the Denver population during this time created a meld of varied communities, cultures and lived experiences. The late 1800s and early 1900s marked an important period for immigration into the Denver area, and as a result, for diversification of the population.
Over the ten years from 1900 to 1910, as documented by US Census data, the population in Colorado increased by over 250,000 people (Historical Census Browser, 2015). As the overall number of individuals within the state increased, so did the variety of regions across the world where these people were coming from. Unfortunately, documentation of minority groups during this era was compounded by the prevalence of racism. While the US Census does provide a lens into where these immigrants were coming from, the language used in the Census itself makes tracking the demographic changes significantly more difficult. The 1900 census tracked ‘persons’ from a given country or region, whereas the 1910 census tracked ‘white persons’ from a given country or region and then grouped all non-white individuals into their own categories, often not tied to their country of origin (Historical Census Browser, 2015). However, through understanding historical contexts and through examining newspapers, photographs and other documents from the time, much can be learned about minority groups in Denver in the early 1900s and the communities they created.
Racism played a key role in the lives of minorities during this time, as was the case across the United States. Minority populations of this time can be more easily understood through categorizing them into three different categories: Asian populations, Latino and ‘Negro’ populations, and Central and Eastern European populations. Each of these groups consists of both immigrants and native-born citizens.
Asian Populations
The Asian population in Denver experienced immense turmoil during the 19th and 20th centuries. As a preface to the turn of the 20th century, the Chinese population faced immense discrimination, not only in Denver but also across the United States. Racial tensions around Chinese at the time of the 1880 election spurred an “Denver Anti-Chinese Riot” which garnered not only local attention, but “became a national political event” (Zhu, 2013). Tensions only increased in 1882 with the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act, banning all immigration of Chinese laborers. In Denver, the Chinese population fell from 971 to 310 within a single decade and when the city ordered for the demolition of Chinatown, “the last physical remnants of the Chinese pioneers of early Denver were erased” and the role of Chinese immigrants in the foundations of Denver began to be erased from historical memory (Zhu, 268-269).
As the Chinese population faced decline, the Japanese population experienced large-scale growth, with the period of significant growth spanning from 1890 to 1924 (Endo). The presence of Japanese culture and society in America was felt in Denver through the growth of small businesses, ethnic churches and a Japanese Newspaper, Denver Shimpo, seemingly replacing the presence of the Chinese over the past few decades (Endo). More specifically, the rise in Japanese immigration peaked between 1903 and 1908 with the majority entering Colorado working as “common laborers, railroad workers, miners, farmhands, factory workers, and domestics. The influx boosted the Japanese population of the state from 48 in 1900 to 2,3000 in 1910” (Maeda, 2008).
Black/Latino Populations
The Chinese were not the only group facing immense discrimination during this time period. With the implementation of Jim Crow laws across the United States since 1890, the Black population, as well as the Latino populations in Colorado were poorly documented. The majority of these individuals, however, worked beyond the city limits of Denver in manual labor occupations. These populations consisted of not only immigrants, but of native-born Americans who were treated as aliens and strangers within their own nation. With segregation still an active part of daily life, these populations often relocated outside of big cities where they were able to find work to survive. These two groups, in addition to Chinese populations, at this time experienced immense racism on both a local and national scale making the outskirts of cities not only more livable, but safer environments than the cities tended to be. The Mexican-American War of the previous decade resulted in the cession of parts of Colorado from Mexican to United States’ control, leaving a large Hispanic/Latino/Mexican population within the nation. (Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, 1848). While these populations were not well documented, their presence was undeniable. In the following decades the trajectory for Mexicans, or other Latino individuals, would follow a similar trend to that of the Chinese. In the 1920s, the United States underwent Mexican Repatriation where individuals of Hispanic descent, regardless of citizenship, were deported, with Colorado being one of the most targeted areas due to the high levels of Hispanic workers involved in labor for the past several years.
Eastern European Populations
While there were innumerable groups in Denver who emigrated from Eastern European countries or whose ancestries were tied to that region, one region in particular held prominence for these individuals: Globeville. Globeville emerged with the first Poles arriving in the 1880s and expanded to a population of over 2,000 individuals of Eastern European descent by 1900 (Cuba, 35). The community was comprised of what Stnaley L. Cuba refers to as “families of almost every Central and East European nationality…as the home of Germans, Poles, Russians, Russian-Germans, Ruthenians, Lithuanians, Czecks, Slovaks, Croats, Slovenians and of some Irish and Austrians of the first and second generations…Globeville became Denver’s leading mixed ethnic enclave” (Cuba, 35). While this area provided a sense of security for a meld of different ethnicities and cultures, in the region of Denver they often faced an immense lack of assimilation within the majority. Much like others of Eastern Europe, the Greeks first arrived in 1880, many of whom were brought as indentured servants to the Colorado region, and the first Greek women followed at the turn of the century in 1900. The Greeks established themselves through local businesses, from coffee houses to Greek or American restaurants, to chile houses to billiard halls or shoeshine parlors to vegetable/fruit stands to tobacco shops. The diversity in their attempts of assimilation was immense; however they remained greatly isolated and unaccepted by majority groups (Patterson, 243). Similarly, Irish-Americans faced numerous struggles of assimilation. However, Irish-Americans were more established in regards to labor, with “nearly 20 percent of the first- and second-generation Irish males in Denver’s work force [having] occupied positions in business or the professions…by 1900” (Brundage, 3). Unfortunately, the resistance towards Irish-American labor came in the form of the 1903 Citizens’ Alliance, which attempted to disband labor unions. These few examples demonstrate the immense struggle of individuals of non-Anglo ethnic backgrounds to assimilate and survive within early 20th century Denver.