First director of Colorado Museum of Natural History appears on Denver KKK list

The first professional director of the Colorado Museum of Natural History, now the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, was a listed member of the Ku Klux Klan, the museum said this week.

Jesse D. Figgins, who served the museum from 1910 until resigning in 1935, died in Lexington, Ky., in 1944. His name appears in the Colorado ledgers of the KKK, which debuted last month online in digitized form at historycolorado.org/kkkledgers.

On Tuesday, the museum’s current President and CEO George Sparks, issued a statement about Figgins membership in the KKK, an American white supremacist, terrorist and hate group.

“History Colorado’s digital release of the Denver KKK membership roster and subsequent programming have received a lot of attention, which is how we became aware that Jesse Figgins, the first director of the Museum from 1910-1935, was a Klan member,” Sparks said in a written statement. “We want to publicly acknowledge this abhorrent history as a part of our past that influenced the operations of the early Museum. For many years, we have been actively working to change systems and practices to make the Museum a more equitable organization.”

The archive, which contains 1,300 pages of original KKK membership records, only covers the years 1924 through 1926. Despite the short time span, there are about 30,000 entries in the Colorado ledger.

The KKK, established after the Civil War, spews hatred primarily against African Americans, the hate group also targets Jews, immigrants, political leftists, the LGBTQ community, Catholics, Muslims and atheists among others.

Figgins name on the Colorado KKK membership list is a painful scar.

“Our staff was justifiably hurt by this revelation, and we acknowledge that volunteers, members and visitors will also feel a multitude of reactions to this,” Sparks said. “We ask everyone to join us in this ongoing work to make Colorado and the Museum a place where all are respected and welcomed.”

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