Ralph Carr Memorial Highway
Near Breckenridge, Colorado
This stretch of highway is named for Ralph L. Carr, who served as Governor of Colorado from nineteen thirty-nine to nineteen forty-three. After Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, the federal government ordered the forced removal of more than one hundred ten thousand Japanese Americans to inland internment camps.
Nearly every Western governor supported or accepted the policy without protest. Carr was the exception. He publicly opposed the internment, welcomed Japanese Americans to Colorado, and insisted they were as American as anyone else.
The stance destroyed his political career. He lost his next election and never held public office again. Carr died in nineteen fifty before he could see his position vindicated.
In two thousand twelve, the Japanese American Citizens League created an award in his name, and today Colorado remembers him as one of its bravest governors, a man who chose conscience over votes.
