DENVER — Former Denver Mayor Michael B. Hancock is launching a fellowship through his Hancock Foundation that will send high school sophomores and juniors to historic sites and museums across the Deep South that have significance to Black history.
The Hancock Heritage Fellowship will select 10 to 12 high school students, who will receive a $3,600 stipend for their participation from June to December.
In his first interview since his term ended, Hancock described what inspired the fellowship.
“About a month after leaving office, I decided to embark upon a solo drive across the Deep South. It was my way to kind of just decompress, reenergize, and just kind of let it all go and enjoy myself. So I flew into Louisiana, spent three days there, and then went into Mississippi, into Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and ultimately into Richmond, Virginia, where I concluded almost 3,000 miles, 21 days solo,” Hancock said. “I spent time visiting all the historical civil rights sites, African American history sites that are significant in our journey here, former slave plantations, some of the great new museums in Alabama and South Carolina. And I tell you, I was blown away. It hit me emotionally more than I could have ever imagined.”
Hancock said he returned to Denver with a newfound purpose to start the foundation and the fellowship to take students on a similar journey.
“Let's just simply say the greatest education you could have is the one you seek out for yourself. You dig deep, and so you cannot erase history. You can take the book out of the classroom. But the reality is that you can only try to bury history. But it's up to all of us, individually and collectively, to say, 'No, no, no. That's not going to happen,'” Hancock said. “I mean, we're standing today able to get on the bus, restaurants, sit anywhere we want, do anything we want because so many people sacrificed for our right to do that."
Hancock said he’s been working on the fellowship for several months, but recent federal and corporate rollbacks of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs made the timing of the fellowship even more important.
“Whether it's Target, Walmart, Amazon, who say, 'We're not going to do this anymore,' that tells me it was never a value of yours. It was a program. And that's really unfortunate because you cannot dismiss something that you profoundly value and believe in,” Hancock said.
The deadline for applications is Wednesday, March 12, at 5 p.m. According to a news release, to be considered for the fellowship, applicants must be currently enrolled in school, classified as a sophomore or junior, aged 16 to 18 at time of application, have at least one adult nominator, have parental or guardian consent, be a Colorado resident, and have legal status in the United States.
Applications can be completed through Hancock-Foundation.org.
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