A Dream of Justice is Colorado state senator and former teacher Pat Pascoe’s firsthand account of the decades-long fight to desegregate Denver’s public schools. Drawing on oral histories and interviews with members of the legal community, parents, and students, as well as extensive institutional records, Pascoe offers a compelling social history of Keyes v. School District No. 1 (Denver).

Pascoe details Denver’s desegregation battle, beginning with the citizen studies that exposed the inequities of segregated schools and Rachel Noel’s resolution to integrate the system, followed by the momentous pro-integration Benton-Pascoe campaign of Ed Benton and Monte Pascoe for the school board in 1969. When segregationists won that election and reversed the integration plan for northeast Denver, Black, white, and Latino parents filed Keyes v. School District No. 1. This book follows the arguments in the case through briefs, transcripts, and decisions from district court to the Supreme Court of the United States and back, to its ultimate order to desegregate all Denver schools “root and branch.” It was the first northern city desegregation suit to be brought before the Supreme Court. However, with the end of court-ordered busing in 1995, schools quickly resegregated and are now more segregated than before Keyes was filed.

Pascoe asserts that school integration is a necessary step toward eliminating systemic racism in our country and should be the objective of every school board. A Dream of Justice will appeal to students, scholars, and readers interested in the history of civil rights in America, Denver history, and the history of US education.

About the Author

Pat Pascoe represented a Denver district in the Colorado Senate for twelve years ending in 2003. In the legislature she was especially interested in education and in improving the lives of women and children, sponsoring bills on preschool, child care, truancy, and bilingual education. She passed bills on temporary marital maintenance and spousal protection. Providing freedom of press for students, creating an organ donor registry, and reducing wood smoke pollution were the subjects of other successful bills. She chaired the Public Policy and Planning Committee and the Education Committee in the Senate, as well as the Democratic Caucus.

In the 1800s Pat's family pioneered Wisconsin where she was born. She moved to Colorado in 1951 and finished high school at Aurora High. She graduated cum laude from the University of Colorado in Boulder where she was selected for Phi Beta Kappa. After teaching at the high school and college level, she earned her MA and PhD in English from the University of Denver. Highlighting her Steamboat Springs connection, Pat has had a cabin in Strawberry Park for 50 years.

Pat's articles have appeared in The Denver Post, The Rocky Mountain News, Denver Magazine, Denver Business and Headfirst. For several years she was a regular Leading Voices commentator on KUVO. The Society of Professional Journalists awarded her first place in the editorial division in 1986.

Borrow A Dream of Justice from Bud Werner Memorial Library.

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