Larry Borom “drove the Urban League movement”
Lawrence “Larry” Hugh Borom, a former Urban League president and human rights director with the city of Denver, died Oct. 20. He was 79.
Borom served as president and CEO of the Urban League of Metropolitan Denver for 15 years, from 1976 until 1991. He was director of Denver’s Agency for Human Rights and Community Relations from February 1993 to June 1996.
Borom was a community activist throughout his life.
In 2009, as chairman of the Black Education Advisory Council, Borom and others filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Labor over alleged “systemic discrimination” in Denver Public Schools which they said drove the number of African-American teachers in the district into decline.
The number of AfricanAmerican teachers at DPS had declined from 324 in 2000 to 256 in 2008.
“This is plain old discrimination based on race,” Borom told The Denver Post at the time. “They are not hiring enough new African-American teachers, not making new positions available, not providing support to new teachers and not renewing contracts.”
Borom told The Post the decline had a negative impact on students.
“There need to be role models for the kids in our community,” he said. “Our kids need teachers that come from the same places as them, represent them, look like them and know something about them.”
Born on Feb. 28, 1937, in Youngstown, Ohio, Borom graduated from Youngstown State University with a bachelor’s of science degree in education. After serving three years in the U.S. Army, Borom taught in Cleveland public schools for a year and then began a career with the National Urban League.
Borom earned a master’s degree in urban studies from Mankato State College in Minnesota, and he worked on doctoral studies in sociology at the University of Colorado.
After serving the Urban League in Minnesota and New York, Borom moved to Denver in 1976. Among his accomplishments in Colorado, Borom, in 1991, helped to found the African-American Leadership Institute at Metropolitan State College Denver.
As president of the Denver Urban League, Borom directed a staff of about 50 employees and oversaw an annual budget of $1 million.
In 2012, Borom and his wife, Betty, were honored by the Denver Urban League with the Sebastian Owens Community Service Award. In 2014, Borom received an honorary doctorate degree in public service from the Denver Institute for Urban Studies.
“Larry made a profound impact on our community and in my life personally,” said Denver Mayor Michael Hancock. “He drove the Urban League movement and became a true role model for me and many others in his intentional teachings of the civil-rights movement. His passion for equality and justice inspired others to act, and Denver is a better place for having had a human rights and community advocate like Larry. While he will be greatly missed, his lessons will live on in so many of us.”
A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday at Park Hill United Methodist Church, 5209 Montview Blvd., Denver.