Nancelia Elizabeth Scott Jackson was one of the early Black residents of North Cherry Creek, a suburb of Denver, Colorado. Her grandfather, William Pitts, was born into slavery in Missouri. Eventually, Pitts settled in Denver and encouraged his daughter and son-in-law, Elizabeth Pitts Scott and Paris, to move from Chicago to Denver. They had six children including Nancelia, who was born in Chicago on October 27, 1924.
Nancelia Jackson lived in Cherry Creek for 98 years. She remembered, “Cherry Creek had a little colony of Black people…We [African Americans] were here first,” meaning before most white residents arrived. Jackson attended schools in the area. At one point, she enrolled in HBCU Lincoln University in Missouri.
Grandfather William Pitts, a carpenter, built Zephyr View Cabin adjacent to the famous Winks Lodge near Lincoln Hills, Colorado. Winks, for many years, was the only resort for African Americans west of the Mississippi. In its heyday the resort hosted Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Lena Horne, Dinah Washington, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Whitney Young. Many of the musicians performed at the Rossonian Lounge and Hotel in Five Points, Denver’s Black community. Afterwards they often vacationed at Winks Lodge, 40 miles away. Both Winks Lodge and the Rossonian Lounge are now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Jackson wrote her first diary, which is housed at the Smithsonian Institution. It explains her one week at Camp Nizhoni, the Phillis Wheatley Black YWCA near Lincoln Hills, Colorado in 1937 at age 14. Her diary is now houses at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. Her memoir, A Chronicle of Precious Memories (1984), is housed at the Blair Caldwell African American Research Library in Denver. A PBS special about race and travel during the Jim Crow era referenced Nancelia Jackson’s travel between Colorado and Missouri with her family.
In 1945 Pitts married World War II veteran Floyd McGlother Jackson, Jr. Floyd Jackson earned three bronze stars for valor in the War and, much later, President Barack Obama gave him a commendation in recognition of his service. The marriage produced three children, Gary, Larry, and Kimberle. Both Larry and Kimberle attained doctorates in education while Gary was appointed a Denver County Court Senior Judge. To help raise her family, Nancelia Jackson worked for over 20 years at the Denver Air Force Finance Center. Jackson was a lifelong member of Denver’s Scott United Methodist Church and served as an usher for seven decades.
An activist for social justice, Jackson penned numerous gentle-but-quasi-militant missives advocating for progressive social policies to public officials such as mayors, congressmen, and even the Colorado Supreme Court. She witnessed the slow but positive legal changes towards civil rights from the Great Depression through the Civil Rights Movement to the present. Jackson served as an election polling official for over 30 years. She voted for the first time for Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944 at age 21.
Nancelia Elizabeth Scott Jackson died in Cherry Creek on August 18, 2024, at the age of 99.
