Aug. 1, 1876, was as typical a day as ever as far as news readers in Colorado could tell. The line read: “President Grant will make A Statement.”That statement, of course, was the proclamation of Colorado’s statehood. It took five attempts for Colorado to claim statehood, according to Katherine Mercier, exhibition developer and historian for History Colorado. “The most ‘whoa’ story that kind of came out of the research was about our third attempt, in 1865, to become a state,” Mercier said. A community of Black men circulated a petition, 137 men signed, and it stopped Colorado from becoming a state in 1865.

Source: Daily Sun March 03, 2026 16:31 UTC