By Chanel Ward
Widespread gentrification has been felt throughout the entire state of Colorado for the past two decades with Denver being affected second in the country, just behind San Francisco and while the Oxford Dictionary glorifies the term as an improvement to an otherwise, “poor urban area,” it is quickly followed up with a generic, “displacing current inhabitants,” polysemous phrase. But this is much more than just a displacement issue and change of address, it’s the collapse of a communal family built over generations, and Denver Public Schools (DPS) are reverting back to a dark past of segregation: resegregation.
For those moving in, it’s a seemingly obvious improvement to just another city itching to be monopolized, but for the hundreds of thousands of families who have been and still are being pushed out, feel targeted, ultimately being forced out of their family/childhood homes and families of students in DPS are no exception to this loss. With each mural covered and brick home bulldozed, one more oral tradition is lost, dooming the generations to come to repeat a complicated and sorted history that still remains, like ghost signs fading on brick.
If you lived in Denver during the 1970’s through the 1990’s there’s a chance you, or at least someone you knew, were being bussed to schools across the city, referred to as busing or The Busing Era and even if you’re familiar with The Keyes v. School District No.1 case, it can be a complicated and scary history, but one that is important now, more than ever to keep front and center as public schools are resegregated.
To understand the impact of the historic Keyes v. School District No.1 case, you first have to go back to its history and a woman by the name of Rachel B. Noel, the first African-American woman to not only be on the school board in 1965 with three other members; all white and all men. She was also the first African-American woman to be elected to any public office. Best known for her civic and political works, her efforts to integrate minority schools was her first priority; thus creating the Noel Resolution; a comprehensive plan on integrating DPS, which she presented to the Board of Education in April of 1968
By June of 1969, the Keyes case was filed when eight families sued DPS after a new school board rescinded the integration guidelines. After U.S. District Court Judge William Doyle sided with the families and their request for an injunction, allowing the integration measures be met even before the case went to trial, things became extremely hostile and even violent, resulting in the bombing of the school bus depot on Seventh and Federal and even a bomb attack at the home of the lead plaintiff in the case, Wilfred Keyes, just seven months after the injunction.
After finally reaching the U.S. Supreme Court in June of 1973, they ruled that the Denver district had in fact intentionally segregated some schools and demanded desegregation to all schools. It was also the first ruling to include Latino students in its order.
The bussing system itself was a complicated network that ultimately balanced schools out to be as racially equal as possible via cross-city travel and although it did achieve that goal, ironically, thereafter led to a phenomenon of white people moving away from largely minority urban areas to more suburban ones.
After more than two decades, The Busing Era came to an end in September of 1995 when U.S. District Court Judge Richard Matsch ruled that Denver had, “complied in good faith,” furthering that segregation was now eliminated due to following the desegregation order and no longer had to be implemented because of such.
Chair for the Latino Education Coalition, Milo Marquez said the students, “released themselves from the court order and mandatory busing ended in 1995. So then the school started to become segregated again.” Marquez made it clear, “this is no fault of the current DPS administration. This is a result of everything that’s happened since 1995.”
“This is just a build-up and we’re seeing more and more segregation as the years pass and this is the first superintendent who’s actually decided to address it,” continued Marquez. “The Latino education Coalition commends the current DPS Administration for coming out, holding it in a bold fashion and putting it out in a press release; identifying that there is segregation in the schools.” Marquez ended.
This is just a build-up and we’re seeing more and more segregation as the years pass and this is the first superintendent who’s actually decided to address it.”
Milo Marquez, Latino Education Coalition
DPS Superintendent, Alex Marrero addressed, “the disparity that exists across our schools,” in an interview with El Semanario stating that it’s one of, “the bigger issues that we’re [DPS] facing. There’s a lot of issues that we’re encountering; from declining enrollment to the clear as day data that we have seen now for, half a century.” Referencing the complicated history of resegregation and the February 2023 study, ‘The Resegregation of District 1, DPS’ by Kim Carrazco Strong, Ph.D. and Craig R. Peña, MSSW.
Marrero explained, “I will be supporting a second version of that [LEC] Latino Education Coalition study, with some DPS Personnel to find a root cause, because although I have suspicions,” Marrero said, “it’s always best to be grounded in evidence.” he added.
“Anyone who wants to lead a school system, wants a school that is a blue-ribbon pillar in the community and shouldn’t have to deliberate much on whether you need to travel across town, because you have options right next door to you,” Marrero explained. “That’s what I believe every school system leader needs to strive for, but it’s impossible when we have other stressors like gentrification and rising cost of living. So this is a city issue, to say bluntly and I’m looking forward to collaborating with the city in any capacity.”
In the, “process of making someone or something more refined, polite, or respectful,” as is the jargon the Oxford Dictionary goes on to define gentrification as, it doesn’t mention the juxtaposition of loss that comes with every gain; while the city booms financially there is a greater, quiet loss of the very essence that made Denver and Aurora the attractive, lively cities they were known for to begin with.
Chanel Ward is an Independent Reporter for The Weekly Issue/El Semanario.
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