GPHC Turns 50
On June 1, Greater Park Hill Community, Inc. threw a block party to celebrate 50 years since the Registered Neighborhood Organization adopted its current name. The party, in front of GPHC’s headquarters at 2823 Fairfax St., included food, beer, wine and soft drinks, face painting and other activities. A video featuring the stories of several longtime Park Hill residents was looped on a big screen inside, in the community room. The video, produced as part of the city’s “I Am Denver” storytelling lab, can be viewed at greaterparkhill.org/ about-us/i-am-denver/. Here are a few scenes from the party. Photos by Cara DeGette
A Solemn Pledge For Equality
GPHC Founders Committed To A Diverse And Cosmopolitan Neighborhood
By Cara DeGette
Editor, GPHN
In the 1960s, the Greater Park Hill Action Committee – later Greater Park Hill Community, Inc. – adopted a pledge. It was a two-way agreement between the organization and its members.
“The greatest asset of a neighborhood is its people, and that diversified, cosmopolitan neighborhoods enrich our lives through the sharing of interests, talents and points of view,” notes the document. As such, pledge-signers agreed to do their best to “maintain the community as a racially cosmopolitan one, reflecting the highest of democratic ideals.”
The document specifies that members recognize that all people are created equal. As such, pledge-signers agreed they would “accept graciously any new neighbor, without regard to race, color or creed, who moves into my block, and [I] will not move, simply because that person is not of the same race, color or creed as I.”
The following is the set of purposes for the neighborhood organization, as detailed in the original pledge:
1. To foster better understanding between persons of different races, creeds and ethnic backgrounds through an educational program aimed at achieving and maintaining an integrated community.
2. To initiate and support projects designed to eliminate prejudice and discrimination both within and without the Park Hill community.
3. To work for better schools to assure that children of all races, creeds and ethnic backgrounds will receive high quality education.
4. To work for better cultural and recreational programs for both children and adults in order to enhance the desirability of living in an integrated community.
5. To work for the prevention of community deterioration in order to promote the advantages of an integrated community.
6. To carry out any other necessary activities through education, with the overall goal of eliminating prejudice and discrimination.