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Dirty Jew-Dirty Mexican: Denver's 1949 Lake Junior High School Gang Battle And Jewish Racial Identity In Colorado, Michael Lee

Ethnic Studies Review

This article details how Jews and Mexicans in Denver, Colorado came together in 1949 in the wake of a widely publicized interracial gang battle at one of the city's local middle schools. It documents the response of the local chapter of the Anti-Defamation League and its involvement in a interracial neighborhood council and how Jewish racial identity in Denver was informed by the broader racial geography of the West-a racial geography that was too often shaped by contrast with Mexicans. The article also challenges the notion that Denver was relatively free of anti-Semitism. Indeed, the 1905 lynching of Jacob Wesskind …