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Photograph by Lew Tilly. Courtesy of Regional History & Genealogy, Pikes Peak Library District, 099-10711.

Fannie Mae Duncan

By Colorado Public Radio Staff
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Colorado banned racial discrimination in the 1930s, yet many restaurants and bars refused to serve Black patrons, or made them use the back door. Fannie Mae Duncan was having none of that.

In 1948, the black entrepreneur opened The Cotton Club in Colorado Springs, a mecca for jazz luminaries, and bought a mansion to house them when they came to town. At the Club, a sign proclaimed, “Everybody’s Welcome.” When the police chief asked her to stop mingling races, she said “I check for age. I didn’t know I had to check for color.” Soon, the chief relented and even became an inclusive ally. But Fannie Mae had more to give.

She donated the first iron lung in the city, funded college tuitions, and was a major supporter of medical research. For her courageous stand in fostering the peaceful integration of the Springs, Fannie Mae Duncan was inducted into the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame.

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