COLORADO HUMANITIES HONORS COMMUNITY LEADERS
AT THE
th
7 ANNUAL AMERICAN SPIRIT SERIES EVENT
Denver – Colorado Humanities recognized 14 Coloradans who have worked to further democracy in Colorado
and to promote education about the foundations of democratic thought, at the 7th Annual American Spirit Series event,
Martin and Malcolm: One Vision – Two Voices at New Hope Baptist Church.
Honorable Mary Celeste is the first woman and lesbian to sit on the Denver County Court bench and she spearheaded
the legal challenge of Colorado's Amendment 2.
Reverend Lucia Guzman was the first Mexican-American to serve as the Executive Director of the Colorado Council of
Churches and serves as Denver’s Director of Human Rights and Community Relations.
Brother Jeff S. Fard has worked to build community in Denver’s Five Points District and has coordinated national
events such as the Million Man March.
Vincent Harding, PhD was an associate of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and is Professor of Religion and Social
Transformation at Iliff School of Theology, where he serves as co-chairperson of the Veterans of Hope Project, a Center
for the Study of Religion and Democratic Renewal.
William (Bill) Hosokawa was interned in World War II and subsequently chronicled the history of Japanese-American
internees in books, such as Nisei: The Quiet Americans, and numerous articles during his 38-year editorial career at the
Denver Post.
Edna Mosley served as Civil Rights Specialist on the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, was the first African American
to be elected to the Aurora City Council, and was a co-founder and director of the Colorado Women’s Bank.
John Mosley, a Tuskegee Airman was the first African American to play in the Big Seven Conference as a football player
at Colorado State University (CSU) and worked at the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, where one of his
tasks was monitoring the implementation of Head Start.
B. LaRae Orullian, as the first president and CEO of the Women’s Bank in Denver, a leader among the nation’s minority
banks, is an advocate for the advancement of women in business and leadership.
Reverend James Peters worked with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the South before he served as the pastor of New
Hope Baptist Church for twenty-eight years and was a member of the Colorado Civil Rights Commission and the Denver
Housing Authority.
Peggy Shivers, a lyric soprano who shared her operatic talent with musical audiences around the world, established the
Shivers African American Historical and Cultural Collection at the Pikes Peak Library District (PPLD) with her husband
Clarence in 1993.
Clarence Shivers, painter and sculptor, was commissioned by the Hooks Jones Chapter of the Tuskegee Airmen
Association to sculpt a memorial to Tuskegee Airmen, which stands today in the sculpture garden of the United States Air
Force Academy.
Dr. G.orge (Tink) Tinker is an enrolled member and traditional spiritual leader of the Osage Nation, Professor of
American Indian Cultures and Religious Traditions at Iliff School of Theology, and the author of Spirit and Resistance:
Political Theology and American Indian Liberation.
Honorable Wilma Webb was elected to the Colorado Legislature in 1980, becoming the first minority woman on the
Colorado Joint Budget Committee, where one of her hardest and most successful battles was her four-year fight to get the
state of Colorado to adopt the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday.
Minoru Yasui appealed his arrest and incarceration during World War II for the rest of his life and, as director of the
Denver Commission on Community Relations in 1976, was credited with averting the race riots that inflamed other
American cities.
Colorado Humanities (CH) was established in 1974 and is one 56 state humanities councils affiliated with the National
Endowment for the Humanities. This year the American Spirit Series offers an insight into an era of pivotal events that helped
shaped civil rights in the U.S. www.coloradohumanities.org.
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