This story was reported by Cameryn Cass in collaboration with the Colorado Student News Service at the University of Colorado Boulder.
State Sen. James Coleman remembers the first time he met former Mayor Wellington Webb when the politician visited his class one day.
Denver’s first Black mayor came to Coleman’s classroom to talk about public service. That interaction pushed Coleman into running for public office for the first time, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Coleman was born and raised in Denver, and now represents District 33, an area of about 150,000 residents in and around the Park Hill neighborhood, which he said he feels especially proud to represent.
“I grew up in Park Hill. My grandmother who just turned 90 still lives there in the house I grew up in,” Coleman said. “This is all I’ve ever known.”
In sixth grade, Coleman was kicked out of his public school for misbehaving. He said he did not know how to use words to defend himself, so he decided to beat up the bullies instead.
Once Coleman said he got kicked out of his public school, his parents told him he had a choice—he could go to a juvenile program or a private school.
His parents enrolled him in the latter with the help of a scholarship, and he landed at a school that taught Black history.
“It was the first time I had a Black teacher, the first time I had a Black principal, and it was really powerful,” Coleman said.
As part of the course, Webb visited Coleman’s classroom, which the now-state senator says led to his interest in public service.
“James likes to tell that story,” Webb said. “Many of them in James’ age bracket remember me because they never perceived that a Black person could be mayor of Denver with a Black population of less than 2%.”
Coleman won his first election in 2016, serving in the Colorado House of Representatives for District 7. At the time, he was the state’s youngest legislator and one of eight African Americans serving in the General Assembly. He served two terms in the House as majority co-whip. In 2020 he was elected to his current seat in the Senate and serves as president pro tempore.
Coleman said he likes positions of power, so he can run committees and, subsequently, get things done. In the latest session he worked on upward of 20 bills, among them a racial equity study that would establish a committee to gather data with the help of History Colorado on how systemic racism has impacted the Black community over time.
The goal is to identify inequities in order to resolve them, he said.
Another bill was inspired after a trip to Switzerland, a country that boasts only a 6.3% dropout rate from high school, among the lowest of any European nation. Coleman said Switzerland offers its high school students a three-year apprenticeship program that begins their senior year of high school if they want to do it.
“In three years, you’ve received your bachelor’s degree and you’ve had three years of apprenticeship where you got paid,” Coleman said. “You get real work experience.”
Coleman is trying to bring a similar apprenticeship program to Colorado, a measure that would greatly help those who can’t afford college, he said.
As far as voting on bills he knows little about, Coleman said he’s open to learning and consulting others about it.
“I’m a state senator. I’m not the governor, I’m not the president. I know I don’t know everything, but I’m required to vote on every bill that comes to this building,” Coleman said. “I’m not afraid to say I don’t know.”
Coleman said he constructed cabinets with Black leaders from the community who are experts in areas where he lacks expertise, so he can learn from them.
“He’s driven all over the state trying to learn more about what other people do to make him a better legislator and a better elected official,” Webb said.