Jim Reynolds, an icon among Denver civil rights leaders, died at a hospice Dec. 9. He was 96.
Reynolds was the first permanent chairman of the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, a job he had for 17 years.
During his tenure, Denver was going through some of its biggest changes: the push for fair housing and ending discrimination in state agencies, businesses and schools.
He fought for fairness in health care, pay and education in minority communities — speaking, marching or whatever it took.
“He challenged people to look at their own racism and was pretty harsh with those who denied they had any,” said Ruth Steiner, who worked with Reynolds for years.
Sheldon Steinhauser of Denver, one of the people who chose Reynolds for the Civil Rights Commission job, said some “were nervous” at Reynolds’ appointment, fearing he “would be too militant because he was used to working outside the system.”
“He was always respectful, but he put the cards on the table,” said Steinhauser, former head of the regional Anti-Defamation League.
Reynolds “never backed down” in fighting racism but “encouraged us to use our wit and knowledge instead of anger to fight it,” said his granddaughter Honia Alexander of Denver.
“He was phenomenal in getting people to think about their attitudes,” said Steiner, of Denver, who had worked with Reynolds in the local chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE).
Reynolds never forgot being denied a seat at lunch counters and having to sit in the balconies of theaters because he was black, he said in a 1986 Denver Post interview.
Segregation and discrimination give a person the “feeling that you are nobody,” he said in the interview. “That feeling still sends me up the wall. I hate it.”
James F. Reynolds was born Aug. 29, 1914, in Winston-Salem, N.C., and graduated from high school there.
He taught minority history and sociology at the University of Denver, served in the Air Force and played baseball in the Negro League.
He married Alice G. Rausch on Oct. 25, 1940. They moved to Denver, and he and other elders opened the Denver Gospel Hall. “He loved to preach and was extraordinarily good at it,” Alexander said.
Reynolds earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in sociology from DU and a master’s of social work at Metropolitan State College of Denver.
He is survived by three daughters: LaNell (Skip) Crownhart of Denver; Alice Holman of Galveston, Texas; and Michaela (Mickey) Jones of Waverly, Texas; one son, John Reynolds of Denver; 14 grandchildren; 27 great-grandchildren; and a sister, Cecilia Reynolds, and brother, Hubert Reynolds, both of Denver.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
