House Speaker Terrance Carroll laughed as his portrait was unveiled Wednesday at the Blair-Caldwell African American Research Library.
Carroll — as all the movers and shakers gathered for the dedication of portraits of four prominent African- Americans could see — unwittingly came dressed in the same suit and blue tie he wore to his portrait sitting.
“I feel way too young to have my portrait hanging here,” said the 41-year-old Denver Democrat, who is also Colorado’s first African-American speaker of the House. “But I know I stand on the shoulder of giants.”
Also honored was Peter Groff, the first black president of the state Senate; Stephanie O’Malley, Denver’s first elected clerk and recorder; and former state Rep. Wilma Webb, who led the years-long fight to make the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday a state holiday.
“I think it’s really wonderful that the portraits are being unveiled here at Blair-Caldwell,” Webb said of the black research library in Denver’s Five Points neighborhood. “I hope it leaves an impression on young people that the African-American community is moving forward and moving together.”
Former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb said he hoped they were just the beginning in a series of portraits of notable African-Americans.
The four were chosen by the Friends of the Blair-Caldwell African American Research Library, and no public money was used for the portraits, Wellington Webb said. He’s the president of the committee, husband of Wilma Webb and father of O’Malley.
Asked whether people might question why half the recipients were family members, Webb said with a laugh, “They earned it — despite me.”
He served as Denver’s first black mayor, and during his tenure it was his wife who pushed for a library that would focus on the history, literature, art, music, religion and politics of African-Americans in Colorado and throughout the Rocky Mountain West.
The crowd included a number of state lawmakers, Denver City Council members and fixtures in the black community, including former City Councilwoman Elbra Wedgeworth.
Groff, who now works in President Barack Obama’s administration, was snowed in and unable to travel from Washington, D.C. His close friend, Denver City Councilman Michael Hancock, was asked to deliver remarks and delighted the crowd with his spot-on impersonation of Groff.
Lynn Bartels: 303-954-5327 or lbartels@denverpost.com
