Neighborhood Delegates Vote To Drop 'Stapleton' Name
DENVER (CBS4) - The Stapleton neighborhood of Denver is one step closer to changing its controversial name. The delegates to the Stapleton Master Community Association voted unanimously Wednesday in favor of a name change.
No new name has been decided. Efforts have been underway for years for the name to be changed because of who the name represents.
From 1923-1931 and later from 1935-1947, the highest position in the city of Denver was held by a member of the Ku Klux Klan, Ben Stapleton.
Phil Goodstein, historian and author of "In the Shadow of the KKK, When the Klan Ruled Denver" told CBS4's Rick Sallinger, "The Colorado Klan was not your southern Ku Klux Klan. In some ways it was a political tool."
Back in the 1920s the Klan had enough power to elect a mayor. A mayor who put Klansmen in powerful positions including the chief of police.
Goodstein says Stapleton was pressured to appoint a police chief acceptable to the Klan.
"Who is running the police department? Is the Klan running the police department or is the mayor running the police department?" asked Goodstein.
The Klan would burn crosses on South Table Mountain and march through the streets of Denver in their hoods. They stood for hatred towards people of color, Catholics and Jews.
"What the Klan was really pushing was 100% Americanism," Goodstein stated.
The Klan may have hid behind their hoods, but displayed their faces at public events like auto races.
Stapleton airport was named after the mayor. It was originally Denver Municipal Airport. He eventually was expelled from the Klan.
While a neighborhood may soon drop his name, the picture of the Stapleton remains among all the past mayors of the city of Denver next to the mayor's office on the third floor of the City and County building.
The name has already been removed from many Stapleton neighborhood locations. To make the change formal, there will be more meetings, and then it will go to the developer of the community and the city of Denver.