Black American West Museum

The Black American West Museum mission is the interpreting, collecting, housing, displaying, exhibiting, and preserving of historical artifacts, documents and other memorabilia which relate the history and stories of Black men, women and children who helped settle and develop the great American West.

The Black American West Museum located in Denver's first elegant streetcar neighborhood, Curtis Park at 3091 California Street, began as the personal hobby of Paul W. Stewart, who as a child playing cowboys and Indians, always had to be the Indian because he was told, "There is no such thing as a Black cowboy". In the early 1960s Stewart met his first Black cowboy. This chance meeting inspired him to research the roles of African American cowboys, mountain men, pioneers, miners, soldiers and homesteaders involved in the building of the great American West.

So the story begins of one man's search and discovery of a past not recorded in history books. His search has taken him to nearly every corner of the West, gathering personal artifacts, memorabilia, newspapers, legal documents, clothing, letters, photographs, and oral histories. It was the Paul Stewart Collection that formed the nucleus for the museum that formally began operations in 1971. Today the museum is housed in the former home and medical offices of Colorado's first African American woman doctor, Justina L. Ford. Today, the Black American West Museum is one of the most comprehensive sources of historic materials about African Americans in the West, and where visitors from all over the world learn why "We Tell It Like It Was".