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A full transcript of this interview is available.

Carolyn Love starts by describing her childhood in Indiana, talking about the formative experiences of racism and Jim Crow policy, coupled with the positives of growing up in an all-Black neighborhood, that helped shape her. She contrasts her high school counselor telling her that she “wasn’t college material” with the Bachelor’s, Master’s and PhD degrees that she earned. She describes the work she has done that focused on providing public service; speaking out for social, economic, and racial justice; and overall being an agent of positive social change, including working in the Food Stamp Program, in corporate settings, in the banking industry, and promoting minority business development through organizations like the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce and the Rocky Mountain Minority Supplier Development Council. She talks about her current business, Kabaya Coaching and Consulting, and her nonprofit, Black Woman Solutionaries. Other topics include her role as a Black feminist; the problem of censorship and book banning; the importance of education; HBCUs; critical race theory; negative racial stereotypes; the importance of knowing Black history; and the philosophy of “calling people in.”

Stuart Dodd talks about his work with the Indian Peaks Wilderness Alliance (IPWA), an organization that works in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service to preserve and protect the Indian Peaks and James Peak Wilderness Areas. He began as a volunteer with the organization in the mid-1990s—patrolling trails, educating the public, collecting data on usage, and helping to ensure safety—and eventually moved into a leadership role. He discusses the history of the IPWA and his work as board chair for four years. While board chair, the organization defined its mission, increased trail restoration work, established a sawyer certification program, started a winter patrol program, created a scholarship program to fund alpine research by college students, created a student intern program, and created a trailhead host program. Other topics discussed are divergent views of how to manage public lands, the boundaries for usage of wilderness areas set by the Wilderness Act, IPWA as a 100-percent volunteer organization, working with the U.S. Forest Service, the challenges of managing a wilderness area that receives so much usage, working with other wilderness friends’ groups and the National Wilderness Stewardship Alliance as a source of ideas and funding resources, and the challenges inherent in continuing to protect wilderness areas.

Gary Jackson, who graduated from CU Law School in 1970, describes the dearth of Black lawyers in Colorado at that time (only 15 in the state) and the founding of the Sam Cary Bar Association as a specialty bar association that provided support for Black lawyers. He talks about Sam Cary, after whom the Bar Association was named, and about the seven founders of the Sam Cary Bar Association (of which he was one). He details some of the projects and other actions pursued by the association over the years, and reflects on its achievements and legacy. Other topics include the influence of the Ku Klux Klan in Denver in the 1920s and ‘30s; some of his mentors, including William Harold Flowers, Ruth Flowers, Dale Tooley; those whom he mentored and influenced; and awards he has received.

Jane Brautigam was Boulder’s city manager from 2008 to 2020. She describes how she grew into her career as a city manager; other places she worked, both as a city attorney and a city manager; and how she came to be hired as Boulder’s city manager. Her wide-ranging discussion of issues handled as Boulder’s city manager include guiding Boulder through the financial crisis of 2008 (the Great Recession), capital bond projects undertaken including facilities updates and expansions, zoning policy changes, attempts to municipalize the city’s electrical system, providing services for the unhoused population, policing and race, priority-based budgeting, transportation including RTD services and the Folsom bike lane experiment, prairie dog management, the city/university relationship, student alcohol use, planning for the CU conference center, the CU South land with regard to flooding and development, racial equity, and handling emergencies—such as floods, fires, and the Covid pandemic. Other topics include the variety of problems with which a city manager deals, a city manager as a facilitator of solutions to these problems, Boulder in 2008, the relationship between city manager and city council, characteristics of a good city manager, retirement, and continuing to serve on nonprofit boards and as a mentor to others. Note that further biographical information about Jane Brautigam is available at Boulder’s Carnegie Library for Local History; and Jane’s curriculum vitae is added to the bottom of the transcript.

Gladys Forshee grew up on a dryland wheat farm, north of what is now Denver International Airport, then lived in Commerce City after marrying Larry Forshee. In 1970, they moved to Superior. From 1970 to 1973, she had the job of town clerk. Topics related to her time as town clerk include public health improvements; obtaining firefighting services for Superior, which eventually became the Metro West Fire Department; and the “Flamettes” women’s firefighting group. She describes using excess money that had accumulated from the Superior Volunteer Fire Department to create historical markers. She talks about the creation of the Superior Historic Commission and describes her research for and the writing of local history books, including a cookbook for the Superior centennial, a book about the Box Elder farming community that was located near where Denver International Airport is today ("Where Memories Linger Silver Birds Will Someday Land: From the Quiet Farm Life of Box Elder Community, Adams County, Colorado, to Denver International Airport," published in 1994), and two other publications that were ready to go to the publisher when they were destroyed in the Marshall Fire. The last part of the interview contains a detailed account of her self-evacuation during the Marshall Fire, the difficulty of finding a place to stay during the fire, and the aftermath of the fire for her as she worked to find housing in the wake of her house having burned.

Glenda Strong Robinson describes her family’s history in the American South, including the enslavement of her ancestors, experiences of segregation and discrimination, and the strong involvement of many family members with religion and education. She discusses her college years during the 1960s, including the contrast between attending a historically Black college versus Memphis State where she was racially in the minority, and the larger events that were happening at that time—the civil rights movement, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the civil rights march in support of the striking sanitation workers in Memphis in which she marched, and the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. She draws parallels between voting inequalities and civil rights struggles of the 1960s, on the one hand, and those happening at the time of the interview in 2022. She goes on to describe her move to California; the work she did there; meeting her husband, who worked for IBM; and moving with him when IBM transferred him to IBM-Boulder in 1980. She describes settling in Longmont, where she has lived for 42 years. Topics include her children’s schooling, working for Ball Aerospace, race relations in Boulder County, the high quality of life in Boulder County, the family-oriented culture of IBM, storytelling to “bring history to life,” conducting Black history programs and other social justice and religious programs, and work with the NAACP of Boulder County.

Wilford Buggs grew up in Texas but has lived in Boulder since 1956. He discusses serving as one of the first African American police officers in Boulder; his career with NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration); community service activities; civil rights efforts; and his church community, Second Baptist Church, which has been a focal point for the Black community in Boulder. Other topics include the importance of Charles and Mildred Nilon as mentors, and raising children in Boulder.

This interview with Kayann Short focuses on the BoulderReads Reading Buddies program that she and Diana Sherry developed and that Dr. Short subsequently ran for 16 years. The program paired Dr. Short’s University of Colorado undergraduate students with preschool-aged- through middle-school-aged students. The pairs of students met regularly and read to each other, an activity that strengthened the younger students’ reading skills, cultivated their interest in reading, and forged supportive relationships between the “little buddies” and the “big buddies.” In addition to delving into many aspects of the Reading Buddies program, the interview also explores other projects in which Dr. Short has been involved, including teaching writing and women’s studies at CU; digital storytelling workshops, which included teaching through Denver’s StoryCenter and developing the Writing Beyond Limits program that she taught to BoulderReads adult participants; writing and publishing her book A Bushel’s Worth: An Ecobiography; a book she currently is researching about the Bluebird Club women’s community in Boulder County dating back to 1911; the Friedman Feminist Press Collection, which she established at CSU; her farm, Stonebridge Farm, which was the first CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm in Boulder County; and heading up a writing group and writing workshops at the Lyons Library.

Frank Morse has worked as a volunteer tutor with the BoulderReads program since 2008. He discusses learning to be a reading, GED, and ESL tutor for BoulderReads. He describes the process, challenges, and satisfactions of tutoring by describing his work with various students. He praises the BoulderReads program and reflects on the similarities of teaching reading to children and to adults. He also talks about his career working in the golf course construction industry and the volunteering work he continues to do with the Woodlands Headstart Program.

Velveta Golightly-Howell talks about her upbringing in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, including her supportive family and community, the positive values she learned from her family, some early experiences that shaped her understanding of race relations, and her education up through college. Eventually, she went to law school at the University of Colorado, and she discusses being one of the very few Black students at the law school at that time. She describes her life as an attorney, including working as the first Black woman attorney prosecutor in the District Attorney’s office in Denver, working in the field of labor law, and being a civil rights attorney in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and for the Environmental Protection Agency. She also talks about mentoring people of color to help them develop their abilities, including mentoring students at the University of Colorado Law School, and women worldwide through an organization she founded called Sister to Sister International Network of Professional African American Women, Incorporated. Throughout the interview, she talks about the religious and moral underpinnings of everything she has done and the way she values giving back to the community.