Columnist
Terrance Carroll
Terrance D. Carroll is a Sunday Denver Post opinion columnist. He was the 54th Speaker of the Colorado House of Representatives. He is the only African-American to have held that position. He served in the legislature from 2003 until being term-limited 2011. Currently, he is the Senior Voting and Democracy Fellow at FairVote, a democracy reform think tank in Washington, DC. He is also a distinguished guest lecturer in the Master of Public Policy program at the University of Redlands in California. He graduated from the Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, University of Denver’s Sturm College of Law, and holds a Master of Divinity degree from the Iliff School of Theology in Denver. He also is an ordained minister in the American Baptist Churches-USA and the Progressive National Baptist Church.
Featured Stories

ap: A woman sexually abused me as a child. Here’s why I’m talking about it now.
I’ve always struggled to sleep. I can’t remember a time when sleep ever came easy for me. As a child, I literally feared the prospect of turning out the lights...

ap: Why I, a Black man, am leaving law enforcement for good
I truly thought I was doing the lord’s work. But I continued to struggle with the reality of being a Black man with a badge and gun entrusted with the...

ap: What Boebert gets wrong about church and state
Boebertap attempt at being an armchair First Amendment scholar and theologian is anti-democratic, pandering, and contrary to American Christianity’s tradition of upholding the separation of church and state.
All Stories

Terrance Carroll: What made King’s rhetoric so effective, today renders it ripe for abuse
In the best of times, it difficult to write about the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. because his presence looms so large in America’s history. King’s legacy is hopeful...

Terrance Carroll: John Eastman’s coup memo was about more than keeping Trump in office
On Jan. 6, 2021, we witnessed a twilight zone where democracy was sacrificed at the altar of fear and hate -- a grim view of a future where who and...

Terrance Carroll: Yes, this is how a fair redistricting process is supposed to feel to incumbents
Some legislators, realizing their loss of control in the process have begun to speak against the commissions -- critiquing their every move.

Terrance Carroll: Why, as a Black man, do I wear a uniform? I find the answer in public servants like Officer Beesley
I’m frequently asked why as a Black man would I put on a badge and gun? I regularly ask myself the same questions. The answer lies in men and women...

Terrance Carroll: This Juneteenth remember that emancipation didn’t come over night, and freedom is still on the way
Juneteenth teaches us that the fight for true freedom in this country requires continual effort; it teaches us that change does not happen instantaneously. Importantly, it teaches us that without...

Carroll: Don’t wall off Colorado’s Capitol from the people
This week I experienced a visceral reaction when I learned of a proposal to encircle the Capitol grounds with permanent fencing. The rationale for the fencing has a critical flaw.

Terrance Carroll: How ranked-choice voting could have kept Colorado voters from wasting their ballots
After one of the most monumental Super Tuesdays in recent memory, Democrats find themselves in a battle for the soul of the party between the Sanders-led progressives and the Biden-backing...

Terrance Carroll: For any of these Democrats to defeat Trump, they must “tell the story” giving birth to their policies
I grew up in a very traditional black Baptist church. Each Sunday as the preacher stood to deliver the sermon one of the church mothers would shout out “tell the...

Terrance Carroll: Without open dialogue, cycle and pain of school shootings will continue
Our anger, outrage, and demand for answers have forced us into diametrically opposed policy prescriptions that at the end of the day have not moved the needle. The public deserves...

Terrance Carroll: New National Western Stock Show will feed Denver’s western roots
The new center will allow Coloradans and people from around the world to experience a bit of the Old West as well as all that the New West has to...