{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"The Thirty-Eighth Star: Colorado Becomes the Centennial State","description":"Colorado became a state in 1876. But the road to becoming the 38th star was hardly straightforward. In this episode of Lost Highways, the team follows the seventeen-year statehood story that finally brought Colorado into the Union. Taxes, railroads, gold, and Civil War politics all played a role. But the most consequential battle centered on the deceptively simple question of who got to have a voice in Colorado\u2019s future. In 1865, just 137 Black Coloradans answered that question with a petition demanding the right to vote. Their organizing helped derail a prejudicial voting law, forced Congress to protect Black suffrage, and ultimately helped secure voting rights for African American men across US territories. It's a story of race, political schemes, competing interests, and stubborn resistance that finally brought Colorado into the Union, and shaped who we are today.  ","author_name":"Lost Highways: Dispatches from the Shadows of the Rocky Mountains","author_url":"https:\/\/www.historycolorado.org\/lost-highways","html":"