In a window of the Cotton Club in Colorado Springs, Fannie Mae Duncan put a sign that read “EVERYBODY WELCOME.”
And everyone was.
No matter what a person’s race, the African-American entrepreneur wanted everyone to come to her club and enjoy the music of Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Lionel Hampton and Etta James.
Now Colorado Springs wants to honor Fannie Mae with a life-size sculpture that will cost about $100,000.
Larry Small, vice mayor of Colorado Springs, said there is no one more deserving.
“She was the person who brought about peaceful integration to Colorado Springs,” Small said. “She made sure it was a club for everyone. This is a lady who should be commemorated.”
Small is spearheading the fund-raising effort with the help of the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum.
Matt Mayberry, executive director of the museum, said Duncan was unique because she made everyone who came to the club feel at home.
There were the black and white GIs from the rapidly expanding Fort Carson. There were the students from Colorado College and the local townspeople, Mayberry said. “The neat thing about the Cotton Club was” they were all welcome, he said.
“And almost everyone has a Cotton Club story,” Mayberry added.
An FBI agent, now retired, used to go there with other agents to enjoy the jazz. A young white woman would go there and Fannie Mae would make sure she and her group of Caucasian friends were comfortable, Mayberry said.
“We need to honor her memory and vision,” Mayberry said.
The club was open for 28 years, serving thousands of clients in the 1950s, 1960s, and early 1970s. The club was torn down in 1975, a part of urban renewal.
Both Small and Mayberry said Duncan’s achievements went far beyond operating an integrated club.
She also was a founder of the 400 Club, an organization of businessmen and women who raised money and provided assistance to people regardless of their race or religion.
And she bought an historic old Victorian mansion that she used both as her home and a place where blacks visiting Colorado Springs stayed when visiting the city.
Small said that a location for the sculpture hasn’t been determined. But he said he would like to see it near the corner of Sahwatch Street and Colorado Avenue, where the Cotton Club once stood.
All donated funds will be used for the development, design and creation of the sculpture, which will become a permanent part of Colorado Springs’ public art collection.
Donations can be sent to: Everybody Welcome Sculpture, Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum, 215 South Tejon Street, Colorado Springs, Co., 80903.
Staff writer Howard Pankratz can be reached at 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com.
