RARE EARTH: Working to bridge distant Colorado lynchings with future peace

AURORA | In the town of Limon, whispers of the past are reminders of a grim chapter of America’s history of racial violence and injustice that unfolded here more than a century ago.

Limon sits on the eastern plains of the state, with roughly 90 minutes of prairie interstate  separating the small town from Denver. Home to barely 2,000 now, in 1900, only 926 people lived in surrounding Lincoln County, according to the Colorado State Demography Office.

On Nov. 16, 1900, a 15-year-old Black boy, Preston John Porter Jr., was lynched in Limon before a large crowd that had gathered to witness the spectacle.

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The Colorado Lynching Memorial Project compiled the sordid story of Porter’s lynching from research and news clippings from the time.

Porter was working on railroad construction in Limon, along with his father and brother, and they traveled to Denver to cash a check for their labor on the Union Pacific Railway.

While in Denver, authorities questioned the three about the rape and murder of Louise Frost, a 12-year-old white farm girl who lived just outside Limon.

Despite their denials of any involvement, they were arrested and detained in a Denver jail, housed within what was then Denver City Hall at 14th and Larimer streets, today known as Bell Plaza.

Porter endured four days of torture in a sweatbox and was coerced into confessing under the threat of his father and brother being lynched. Without any court appearance or action, Denver police sent him back to Limon by train.

As the train approached Limon, a mob abducted Porter, bound him to a railroad tie and pieces of lumber, and burned him alive before a crowd of more than 300 people.

Aurora educator and poet laureate emeritus Jovan Mays volunteers as a coalition member for the Colorado Lynching Memorial Project. He said many people in the Denver metro area, as well as the eastern plains, were unaware of these events until recently. He said he feels an urgency to teach Black men about the dangers and fears rooted in these historical traumas.

“I think about young Black men having to operate in spaces of majority whiteness and the tensions that could come from that, and when you think about the discomfort that you hear from them, it gets validated in moments when you learn about Preston Porter’s story of danger, of fear, of being tried as an adult when you’re just a child, of being adulted when you’re just a child,” Mays said.

Confronting the Truth of Racial Terror Lynchings

According to their website, the Colorado Lynching Memorial Project aims to advance racial justice and reconciliation by documenting past racial terror lynchings within the state, fighting for their proper recognition, and commemorating the victims’ memories. They also work closely with the national nonprofit law office, Equal Justice Initiative, which supports efforts to educate communities about the history of racial injustice. 

Education and transparency inspires thoughtful consideration and, ultimately, change, initiative members say.

Prior to the creation of the memorial project and becoming a coalition member, Judy Ollman served as a volunteer liaison with the Equal Justice Initiative. She started the local memorial project with the help of others, such as author Stephen Leonard and Anthony Suggs from the Episcopal Church in Colorado.

She said initially it was easy to get coalition members involved.

“Preston’s story is so compelling that once people realize what happened to Preston, they’re shocked,” Ollman said. “Most people are just completely shocked that this could have happened in Colorado.”

In 2018, the memorial project, in conjunction with the Equal Justice Initiative, spearheaded an effort to uncover, memorialize, and educate the public about seven documented racial terror lynchings that took place within the state between 1867 and 1902.

A “racial terror lynching” operated outside of legal frameworks, Mays said. It was typically mob-led, and was a widespread extrajudicial execution method in the United States and across the globe for centuries.

“Lynching as a form of capital punishment has been a part of the world for a long time, and what makes racial terror lynching different is that it’s mob centric, meaning that a grouping not bound to law is conducting that capital punishment,” Mays said. 

Mays tagged racial terror lynching to the Jim Crow era, a period of American history when there were no or only minimal repercussions for carrying out such a violent act.

Becoming visibly emotional while discussing Porter’s death, Mays described how during the boy’s lynching, he called out and asked God for mercy, not only for himself, but also for his killers.

“It is said that Preston, during said time, was showing an abstract amount of empathy for those men,” Mays said, “Particularly by reading them Bible verses, particularly by tearing out the pages of the Gospel of Luke and handing it to these men as well.”

Honoring Preston John Porter Jr.

In profound remembrance, members of the Colorado memorial project trekked to Montgomery, Alabama, to memorialize Porter with a soil dedication, part of a nationwide memorial honoring dozens of victims with dozens of jars.

Coalition members filled a large jar with soil from Denver’s old city hall site, where Porter was tortured, as well as soil taken from the vicinity of the old train station near Limon where the mob apprehended and lynched him.

The group flew to transfer the soil to the National Memorial for Peace and Justice which was created by the Equal Justice Initiative.

“Taking that soil through the airport, getting checked at TSA, and having to clarify that we’re part of one of the most unique ceremonies I imagine that we have in this country, maybe in the world, has brought me just immense joy to be a part of that experience,” Mays said.

Mays described Porter’s memorial as one of the most profound moments of his life and likened the symbolic nature of the soil transfer to creating a fraternity of solidarity among lynching victims.

“Watching the soil get transferred felt like a representation of Preston’s body finding a home,” Mays said. “While it felt like a funeral, it also felt like a graduation and at times for me it felt like we are celebrating the ‘sweet sixteen’ that Preston deserved to have.”

Dara Ollman, who works with her mother, Judy Ollman, at the memorial project, accompanied Mays on the trip and said she was overwhelmed and cried a lot during the ceremony.

“It was really emotional to finally be able to do a memorial for Preston,” Dara Ollman said. “It was a long time coming for us, but then to think about how long of a time coming it was for Preston to finally get this opportunity for dignity and peace and to rest, to really rest. That was just really emotional.”

Overcoming Hurdles for Commemoration

Despite keen interest from so many, the memorial project has faced a host of challenges in bringing full recognition to Porter’s story.

The Equal Justice Initiative’s process requires the formation of a community-based coalition to spearhead the placement of a historical marker and the initiation of an essay contest. Although Denver successfully met both milestones, Judy Ollman said the project didn’t get support for a coalition, a marker, or an essay contest in Limon.

“Some of them (Limon residents) were elderly, and I think that it was a lot for them to take on,” Ollman said. “Some of them were on the other end of the spectrum; they were very young. I just don’t think anybody was ready to make that kind of commitment.”

Mays said although the Limon community has not responded to inquiries about participating in the memorial project, he is optimistic that with collaboration and repeated effort, the obstacles might be overcome.

“Some of the challenges that we’ve had in the community of Limon with activating the community remembrance project have been radio silence when it comes to our communication to try to execute a high school essay contest and get a historical marker erected,” Mays said. “What it’s going to take is collaborative communication, and we continue to struggle with that design of figuring out partnerships with people who want to be involved.”

Mays isn’t alone in hoping members from the Limon community will join the memorial project’s efforts to complete Porter’s recognition there. 

Montana Stevenson joined the memorial project shortly after moving to Colorado. She served as the facilitator of the essay contest for Denver school students. She was able to initiate the essay contest in Denver only after the historical marker had been placed there per the Equal Justice Initiative’s process.

 “I would like there to be some kind of marker or acknowledgment in Limon, and I know it is challenging, I’m sure, for some members of that community to face that history, especially if they have family members who were involved,” Stevenson said. “But I think it’s important.  It’s really important for us to recognize these things that have happened and acknowledge them so that they don’t get repeated.”

 Stevenson said that the Denver schools essay contest helped students see how instances of racial injustice continue to plague Black people today.

 “A lot of them (Denver students) didn’t know the story of Preston Porter Jr., and they had the chance to research his story or another story of racial injustice that happened either in Colorado, or the whole U.S.,” Stevenson said. “It was an opportunity for them to learn about a historical event and put current conversations about racial injustice and issues that were still happening in America in a historical context.”

Lucille Reimer, the library director in Limon, provided insight from the perspective of a Limon resident. She acknowledged the resistant attitude some community members may have toward revisiting this grim part of their history.

“I think the only people who are probably totally resistant are the quote-unquote old timers,” Reimer said. “I think they feel it gives them a black eye because that’s not how they want to be known, as a lynch mob.”

The Colorado Lynching Memorial Project emphasizes the importance of remembrance, education and community effort in confronting and understanding painful historical events. As the memorial project concludes its tribute to Preston John Porter Jr. in Limon, the organization moves forward with plans to commemorate the six other identified victims of racial terror lynching statewide by preserving their stories as reminders of efforts to attain justice and equality.

Dara Ollman said that the arts are key to reaching people’s hearts in these communities of resistance.

“I would like to see storytelling done through all the arts—plays, music, interactive art experiences,” she said. “We’ve seen the potential of opening people up with these Meow Wolf art places. What if we created something similar that promotes awareness and conversation in communities?”

She said that involvement has allowed her to advocate for justice and equality by telling Porter’s story and immersing herself in his experience.

“I think it’s got a lot to do with outreach to the community at this point and really trying to build relationships with people to help them connect in some personal way to Preston’s story,” she said. “I think something that happens when you get proximate to someone’s story like this is that it brings you closer to a part of yourself as well. It gives you proximity to your humanity.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: Jovan Mays is an Aurora Sentinel Community Media board director. Aurora Sentinel Community Media is a 501(C)(3) organization that holds Aurora Media Group LLC, which operates Sentinel Colorado. The Sentinel newsroom and editorial operations are independent of the board and its members.

Meet StorySprint reporter Lentheus Chaney
Lentheus Chaney began his career in journalism by teaching himself how to write, edit and publish magazines at his dining room table. Chaney recently earned his degree in journalism and media communication from Colorado State University and works as a freelance reporter at the Atlanta Voice. His long-term objective is to work for a news organization as a multi-skilled journalist and tell enterprise stories that inspire and inform.