COLORADO SPRINGS, CO – The Black History Guided Tour is one of the many ways that the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum (CSPM) is celebrating Black History Month and honoring Colorado Springs’ history.
This guided tour takes visitors through the beautiful 1903 building that houses the museum and highlights the Black pioneers featured in each exhibit.
Attendees hear stories about historical figures buried in Colorado Springs history. For example, the story of “Mama” Susie Perkins, an entrepreneur who fought racial discrimination by buying and renovating real estate to rent to interracial couples and Black families in Fort Carson. Or the story of Kelley Dolphus Stroud, a man who hitchhiked, walked, and ran from Colorado Springs to Boston for the 1928 Olympic trials after being denied transportation because of his race.
Makaela Warden, Education Assistant at CSPM and Colorado Springs native, said that growing up, historical figures like Susie Perkins and Kelley Dolphus Stroud weren’t commonly highlighted, but CSPM wants to change that. “Why have I never been taught this in school?” she said, “There’s a lot that I think, school system wise, we’re just not taught about.”
Throughout the tour, attendees learn about Colorado Springs history through a different lens. In the “City of Sunshine” exhibit, which focuses on the history of Colorado Springs being a premier health destination for the treatment of tuberculosis, the tour guide talks about how Black residents weren’t necessarily given equal treatment for TB if they were not wealthy.
Diane Barber Stine, Development Director at CSPM, emphasized how the Pioneers Museum seeks to tell the untold stories of Colorado Springs. “Our role in the community is to tell these stories, but also having the Black community tell these stories for us to share,” she said, “We have so many great individuals who helped shape what our community is today and that’s why it is so important to highlight these stories.”
After the tour, visitors can spend hours perusing the Pioneers Museum’s extensive collection of Colorado Springs artifacts from as early as the 19th century to as recent as the Black Lives Matter protests that took place in 2020.
Barber Stine also added, “CSPM is proud to tell Black History every day because Colorado Springs history is Black history and Black history is Colorado Springs history.”
This guided tour, held every Saturday at 11 am, began as a specifically Black History Month event, but because of its popularity, will now be held every week for the indefinite future.
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Susan, tour guide at the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum, teaches visitors. Photo by: Rowan Schaberg.
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“Any Place That is North and West” exhibit inside the historic Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum. Photo by: Rowan Schaberg
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Information about the Guided Tour can be found on this infographic. Source: Photo provided by the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum, infographic made by Rowan Schaberg.
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