This article by Sara Wilson appeared on Colorado Newsline on June 4, 2024
Colorado Governor Jared Polis signed into law on Tuesday a bill that establishes a study of the historical and ongoing effects of systemic racism on Black Coloradans.
“To understand where you want to go, you have to understand where you came from,” Polis said ahead of the bill signing next to the Martin Luther King Memorial in Denver’s City Park. “This bill will help further that, in a thoughtful, intellectually rigorous and important way to help highlight the contributions and challenges of Black Coloradans throughout the last centuries.”
Senate Bill 24-53 was sponsored by Sen. James Coleman, a Denver Democrat, Rep. Naquetta Ricks, an Aurora Democrat, and Rep. Leslie Herod, a Denver Democrat. It passed the Legislature on essentially a party-line vote.
The bill creates the Black Coloradan Racial Equity Commission, which will direct History Colorado to study the impacts of slavery and racism, including an economic analysis, on areas including economic mobility, housing, K-12 education, health care and the criminal justice system in Colorado.
It is an intentionally wide mandate to study not only abandoned practices such as redlining and hiring discrimination, but also uncover lesser known racist policies and actions from the state’s history and how those residuals contribute to inequity today.
“What this study does is ensure that the work does not stop with one or two or three elected officials, or one or two or three community leaders. It means it will continue,” Herod, who is finishing her final term in the House this year, said. “But on top of that, it will have the stamp of the state of Colorado. Because I will be very clear: We cannot have justice if there’s not a clear acknowledgement of the harm that was done.”
Polis, House Speaker Julie McCluskie and Senate President Steve Fenberg, all Democrats, will need to appoint the members of the commission by September. The group will include people with a track record of public service with historically impacted Black Coloradans, experts on constitutional law and racial justice, a historian who is an expert on Black Coloradans, someone with experience quantifying economic impacts of racism, someone who has experience researching the impact of systemic racism on Black Coloradans, two representatives and two senators.
The study and resulting data could then be used as a basis for future recommendations and legislation. History Colorado will submit the study and its recommendations within two and a half years.
“I’m also excited about making sure that we have the right data that drives and informs the policies that we do run moving forward,” Coleman said, noting that his colleagues at the Capitol tend to ask for the data and information behind certain bills.
The Legislature did not appropriate any General Fund money for the study. Instead, it is contingent on the commission receiving $785,000 in gifts, grants and donations.
“There is still work to be done to make sure that this bill gets implemented. It doesn’t end — unfortunately — with the signature of this bill,” Herod said. “We still have to raise money in order to make sure that the study is conducted. And that’s going to come from the community. This is a community-led initiative.”