Soul Food Scholar dishes about culinary culture at Museum of Boulder's Black history exhibit

Jan. 18—Like most good stories, this one includes food.

For James Beard Award-winning food writer Adrian Miller, what began as casual research for a book eventually evolved into a full-blown museum exhibition after Miller stumbled across some interesting facts about Black Americans in Colorado history.

After weeks of sifting through old newspaper archives from the 1800s, Miller — who is also a historian, attorney, former special assistant to Bill Clinton and certified barbecue judge (no big deal) — attended a gathering with several members from the Museum of Boulder, where he revealed his findings to a more than receptive room.

"Really, this all started with me opening my big mouth at a dinner party in Boulder," said Miller.

After two years of more research and painstaking organization, "Proclaiming Colorado's Black History" opened in September at the Museum of Boulder. The exhibition, which will be on display for the next two years, invites visitors to witness stories omitted from textbooks, magnifying Black viewpoints through an assortment of film, text, oral histories, music, artifacts and artwork.

One story in the exhibit shines a light on Charlotte Green, an enslaved woman brought to Bent's Fort, a trading post, in southeastern Colorado in the early 1800s. Green was known throughout the region for her pastries, pumpkin pie, buffalo stew and for hosting lavish dinner parties for high-ranking military personnel.

Though Green touched thousands of travelers with her food and hospitality, the fact remains that she was forced into a condition of involuntary servitude. While Colorado is often celebrated as the first state in the U.S. to abolish slavery, many don't realize that slaves still lived in this area, according to Miller.

"I really want people to understand that we had enslaved here people in Colorado," Miller said. "Although slavery was never legal in Colorado, it was never technically illegal. There were enslaved people in Bent's Fort, there were enslaved people in Denver before the Civil War, and there were also formerly enslaved people who moved to Colorado."

"Proclaiming Colorado's Black History" also chronicles the life of Columbus B. Hill, a legendary African American cook who once famously fed thousands of hungry Coloradans at a barbecue celebrating the construction of the Colorado State Capitol building in Denver on July 4, 1890. According to Miller, an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 people attended and were served 30,000 pounds of beef, lamb and veal, 5,000 pounds of bread, 30,000 cucumber pickles and 8,000 to 10,000 tin cups of lemonade.

The Greeley Tribune reported in 1894 that "Hill is a colored man and has a great reputation as a barbecue cook. He has officiated at more barbecues in the past 12 years than any other man in the Union. From Missouri to the Lone Star State he has baked meat for hungry thousands and he thoroughly understands his business."

Despite being lauded as one of the "greatest barbecue men in the West," Hill was buried in an unmarked grave at Riverside Cemetery in Denver.

For Miller, Green and Hill's stories are reminders that in the face of inequity and injustice, we all have shared humanity — in the stories we tell, in the spaces we live, and in the food we share.

"Food is one of the few truly universal experiences that we humans have," Miller said. "We all need food to survive. It's something we all do. That common human experience gives you a point of connection, and human beings are social, so it creates an entry point to experience others. When you sit down at a table, you can't help but affirm or recognize the other person's humanity who's also sitting at that table.

"When you're in that space, you're eating, you start talking, you're a little more open...eating together has a disarming effect. It just creates a space where people can come together. And we don't have many of those left, in modern society. There's very few communal spaces left."

Miller said he hopes that the exhibit will serve as one of those rare spaces: one where people gather, converse, create memories and learn how the Black experience is intricately woven into the fabric of American history.

In addition to telling the stories of Green, Hill and other Black leaders in Colorado's history, the exhibition also features a vast collection of recorded oral histories, planned and conducted by Oral History Liaison and NAACP Boulder County Historian Minister Glenda Strong Robinson.

"It has been one incredible experience," Strong Robinson said, in a provided statement. "Each of us has a story. For Black people in Boulder, there were very few that were captured. Me being at Second Baptist Church for the past 43 years, having known families through six generations, I was able to get them to tell their stories. And what stories they are."

The histories include first-hand stories from contemporary Black leaders in the community — including Reiland Rabaka, founder and director of the Center for African & African American Studies at the University of Colorado. The exhibit includes Rabaka sharing the story of his path to teaching and his experiences with racism and classism in academia.

Another account from former nurse practitioner Inez D. Buggs details growing up in a racially segregated Texas, her experiences with discrimination after moving to Boulder, and her 30-year career at Clinica Family Health.

"Black people have been here, have lived here, have raised their families here, have contributed to this bustling economy, and many of them died here," Strong Robinson said, in a prepared statement. "There's a saying that says if we neglect the history of our past, we're bound to repeat it. We're capturing the history of the past, hopefully, so that we won't repeat it."

While focusing on the past and present, the exhibit also imagines the future of Black voices in Colorado, with original art from Lafayette abstract artist Adderly Grant-Lord. Grant-Lord's work, which has been has been widely displayed across the county, is vibrant, contemplative and restorative. Along with several other pieces from contemporary African American artists, Grant-Lord's paintings deal with Afrofuturism — the cultural and artistic movement that presents futures and realities where Black people play central and empowered roles.

"The idea is that the present reality is so infected with racism, that we have to imagine other realities where we're fully accepted as human beings," Miller said.

This final part of the exhibit is meant to answer the question: "What type of ancestor will you be for future Black Coloradans?" to which, Miller said, it is up for the viewer to decide.

To get the full experience, museum visitors have the opportunity to attend a guided tour of "Proclaiming Colorado's Black History," led by Miller, on Saturday and March 4. For more information and tickets, visit museumofboulder.org.

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The interactive exhibit takes viewers through the past, present, and...

The interactive exhibit takes viewers through the past, present, and future of Colorado's rich Black history. (Museum of Boulder/Courtesy photo)

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A painful moment in Colorado's Black history, the lynching of...

A painful moment in Colorado's Black history, the lynching of 15-year-old Preston Porter, is commemorated in the exhibition. (Museum of Boulder/Courtesy photo)

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This display showcases artifacts and stories from the town of...

This display showcases artifacts and stories from the town of Dearfield, the largest Black homesteading settlement in Colorado. (Museum of Boulder/Courtesy photo)

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OT Jackson, whose businesses ventures include Dearfield and Chautauqua Dining...

OT Jackson, whose businesses ventures include Dearfield and Chautauqua Dining Hall catering, was a successful and prominent entrepreneur in the late 1800's and early 1900's.

(Museum of Boulder/Courtesy photo)

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Lafayette-based artist Adderly Grant-Lord has art work on display at...

Lafayette-based artist Adderly Grant-Lord has art work on display at the Museum of Boulder's "Proclaiming Colorado's Black History." (Adderly Grant-Lord/ Courtesy photo)

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