How the legacy of Colorado’s first Black surgeon lives on in Denver’s Five Points

DENVER — A portrait hanging on the wall reminds Candace Lartigue of who came before.

“When I walk in the doors here, I am part of a legacy,” said Lartigue, a nurse practitioner at Denver Health’s Eastside Family Health Center.

In the heart of the historic Five Points neighborhood, African American history runs deep. And at the country’s second oldest community health clinic, that history revolves around one man: Dr. Bernard F. Gipson Sr.

“As a Black woman working in healthcare, you don’t see a ton of representation,” Lartigue said. Even today, “you don’t see a lot of Black surgeons.”

Especially not like Dr. Gipson, who became one of the first Black surgeons in the country, at a time when African Americans were deep in the Civil Rights movement.

“There have been a ton of contributions to civil rights, to the health equity movement, to social justice, coming out of Denver,” she said. And Dr. Gipson played a part.

“He actually took care of Dr. Martin Luther King, I think it was a second visit out here, for altitude sickness,” Lartigue said.

Denver7 wanted to learn more about Dr. Gipson’s life and legacy. That’s when we discovered that the man himself preserved his story before he died.

Tucked away into boxes donated to the Blair-Caldwell African American Research Library, photographs, letters and certifications share a glimpse of his monumental achievements.

“People see the black and white photos and they’re like, ‘Oh yeah, that was a long time ago’ and we’re like ‘No, no,’” said Dexter Nelson III, the library’s museums and archives supervisor.

Nelson and his team are dedicated to preserving Denver’s African American history, but even they hadn’t heard of Dr. Gipson.

When they pulled these boxes from the archives, we learned about the doctor together.

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