Denver Public Library honors first Black person born in Colorado in special ceremony

Descendants of the first African American to be born in Colorado gathered at Denver's Blair-Caldwell African American Research Library over the weekend for a special ceremony. William Whitsell was inducted into the Denver Public Library's Blacks in Colorado Hall of Fame on Saturday afternoon.

"We're just here to honor such a great man," said Damon Jones, who is Whitsell's great great grandson.

Jones said his family is very "closely knit" and they were surprised when they figured out that Whitsell was their ancestor.

"We're musicians, we're singers, we're writers, we're a bunch of artists. And so through our work we were just reaching back and wondering 'You know, where to we get this from?'" he said.

Jones said Whitsell's name came up when they started doing some digging into the past, and it helped them put a lot of pieces together.

"(We're) part of a legacy of a man who was the first Black man born in Colorado," Jones said.

Whitsell was born in Central City in Feb. 24, 1866. That's when Colorado was a U.S. territory and hadn't established statehood. Historians think Whitsell's parents were likely former slaves who had been freed and came west to work in the railroad industry.

The family eventually moved to Denver and lived where Union Station is now.

"They endured a lot. And to be a Black man back then -- when our neighbors to the south were still fighting for our freedom -- for him to be here and to be a part of the pioneers of how Colorado was going to be shaped? That alone just lets you know that you have to be a person with great tenacity to go through something like that," Jones said.

That same tenacity has lived on for nine generations. Members of five of those generations are still living in Colorado, and many came to the Blair-Caldwell African American Research Library on Saturday to see Whitsell get honored.

"It's because of people still digging at it that we are starting to get the recognition that he really deserves," Jones said.