Rebuild

Reestablish

Develop

Grants given by the Denver Black Reparations Council are focused on restoring and sustaining institutions and traditions harmed by the legacy of chattel slavery, Jim Crow segregation, and the resulting structural disadvantages affecting Coloradans.

 

The Denver Black Reparations Council (DBRC) mission is to:

Reparations is not just about cutting a check. It's about repairing a community.

We have been conditioned to be frightened by the word “Reparations” because the definition has been restricted to only giving out money. We see Reparations as a process, not just a financial transaction. The heart of Reparations is to repair a community that has suffered for centuries. Financial compensation is one of several restorative processes that includes changing an educational system that is based on supremacist ideology, creating a system of security and policing that is not based on controlling Black bodies, fast-tracking home and land ownership, which is a foundation for wealth accumulation, and connecting Black people to a history that was taken from them.

New Hope Baptist hurch
New Hope Baptist Church. Looks to be from the 60s judging by the Pontiac parked in front. Source: Denver Public Library
Black Firemen_Captain Nathan Biffle
Black Firemen Captain Nathan Biffle. 1944. Source: Dr. Marilyn Hosea
Standard station 29th and Colorado Blvd, Denver
Standard station at 29th and Colorado. [1950-1970?] Source: Denver Public Library
McRea Wrecking Co.
McRea demolition. [1950-1970?] Houses in Five Points. The sign reads “This Building Will Be Down within […] days McRea Wrecking Co. AL54142” Source: Denver Public Library
Emmett Williams Barber Shop
Emmett Williams Barber Shop, 2721 Welton St. Source: Denver Public Library
Black men at City Park, Denver, Colorado
Black men at City Park. [1905-1915?] Source: Denver Public Library
Only colored fire company in Denver 1931
Only Colored fire company in Denver, 1931. DFD No 3. at 2363 Glenarm Place. Source: Denver Public Library
Martin Luther King, Jr. statue
Blair Caldwell Library

Support Our Mission Make a Donation

DBRC grants funds to benefit communities of Coloradans whose ancestors experienced hardships under chattel slavery and Jim Crow.

Your donation helps us to provide the funding.

We fund organizations that:

    • Build economic strength, generational wealth acquisition, and financial literacy.
    • Preserve, provide access to, and expand the history, culture, knowledge, and awareness of communities in Colorado shaped by the legacies of slavery and Jim Crow.
    • Enhance mental and physical health access and increase public health education.
    • Provide quality education from early childhood through adulthood, including reimagination of career options and pathways.
    • Enhance community building and advocacy that responds to the needs of Colorado residents living in communities shaped by the legacies of slavery and Jim Crow.
    • Provide access, including transportation, to critical life-sustaining services.
    • Create openings for transformative change that are both systemic and relational.