Candice McKnight, founder of the African-American Historical and Genealogical Society and curator of the African American museum in the Westside Community Center, browses through books on one of the packed shelves during a tour on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2019. The museum is celebrating it’s 10th anniversary this year. “Ten years ago, we just wanted a place for our organization,” McKnight said. “Then I decided that it could go bigger and better than just a place for our organization. This could be the first black museum in Colorado Springs.”(Parker Seibold/The Gazette)
Parker Seibold, The Gazette/
CHRISTIAN MURDOCK, THE GAZETTE/
5 lessons from Colorado Springs African American museum
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Downtown venue offers free weekly jazz, blues concerts in Colorado Springs
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Fannie Mae Duncan and friends stand on the street in front of the Cotton Club in 1955. The neon sign on the building reads “Duncan’s Cafe Bar Lounge.” Duncan graduated from the integrated Colorado Springs High School (now Palmer High) in 1938, the first in her family to get a diploma, according to a Nov. 5, 2018, Gazette article. She went into business for herself at age 26. Duncan bought the building that would become Duncan’s Cafe and later the Cotton Club across from the Antlers hotel, when she was just 28. Photograph by Lew Tilley, Courtesy of Pikes Peak Library District, 099-10714