South Broadway Businesses Celebrate Diversity After Hate Speech Vandalism

DENVER (CBS4)- Several small business owners in a Denver neighborhood took a stand on Friday after they said they were targets of hate. At least four or five stores on South Broadway between 1st Avenue and Bayaud Avenue, were hit with white supremacy stickers on their storefronts.

"These stickers and these acts that have happened were really meant to just scare everybody and assert their dominance," said Erika Righter, owner of Hope Tank on South Broadway.

Righter told CBS4 that on Wednesday she got a call from her staff about hate propaganda plastered across many of the businesses, including hers. That's when she said she wanted to throw a community block party on the sidewalks to celebrate what makes them different.

"We all come together around something that's challenging, but we come together already," said Righter. "We're all a bunch of weirdos, and we have found our people."

Alan Brooks, who shops on South Broadway and knows some of the business owners well, said that diversity and inclusivity is the sense people get when they walk inside the stores.

"As long as you're trying to contribute something positive, then they create a space for you, which is really cool to me," said Brooks.

"You have really, really unique places that you're not going to find anywhere else," Righter said.

So far, there are no updates from police about a suspect or whether anyone has been arrested in connection with the vandalism.