Ralph Lawrence Carr

Infobox Governor
name = Ralph Lawrence Carr


order = 29th
office = Governor of Colorado
term_start = 1939
term_end = 1943
lieutenant = John Charles Vivian
predecessor = Teller Ammons
successor = John Charles Vivian
birth_date = birth date|1887|12|11|mf=y
birth_place = Rosita, Colorado
death_date = death date and age|1950|9|22|1887|12|11
death_place = Denver, Colorado
party = Republican
spouse = (1)Gretchen Fowler
(2)Eleanor Farrall Howe
profession = lawyer, newspaper editor
religion =

Ralph Lawrence Carr (December 11, 1887ndash September 22, 1950) was Governor of Colorado from 1939 to 1943. Born in Rosita in Custer County, he grew up in Cripple Creek in Teller County and graduated from Cripple Creek High School in 1905. A Republican, Carr was committed to fiscal restraint in state government and opposed the New Deal policies of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. However, Carr supported Roosevelt's foreign policy. When the War Relocation Authority decided to resettle Japanese-Americans from the West Coast in a camp at Amache near Granada, Carr went against popular anti-Japanese sentiment by urging Coloradans to welcome the evacuees. In a speech defending the rights of the displaced Japanese-Americans, Carr said:

"If you harm them, you must harm me. I was brought up in a small town where I knew the shame and dishonor of race hatred. I grew to despise it because it threatened the happiness of you and you and you."

Carr's urgings for racial tolerance and for protection of the basic rights of the Japanese-Americans are generally thought to have cost him his political career, including his ambition for election to the United States Senate. He narrowly lost the 1942 Senate election to incumbent Democratic Senator Edwin C. Johnson.

Carr is buried in Fairmount Cemetery in Denver. In 1976, a bust of Carr was erected in Denver's Sakura Square to commemorate his efforts on behalf of Japanese-Americans.

Carr has a street named after him which runs through the city of Arvada.

On March 14, 2008, both houses of the Colorado legislature, in a unamious vote, named a section of U.S. Route 285 between Kenosha Pass and C-470 the "Ralph Carr Memorial Highway." [http://www.politicswest.com/21773/house_names_road_after_courageous_gov_ralph_carr]

ee also

*Japanese American internment

References

* "Who Was Who in America", v. 3 (1951-1960), Chicago: Marquis - Who's Who, 1963, p. 140.
*cite book
last=Schrager
first=Adam
title=The Principled Politician: The Ralph Carr Story
location=Golden, CO
publisher=Fulcrum Publishing
date=2008
isbn=978-1-55591-654-1

External links

* [http://www.colorado.gov/dpa/doit/archives/govs/carr.html Governor Ralph L. Carr Collection at the Colorado State Archives]
*Find A Grave|id=5838165
* [http://www.aclu.org/students/29372res20070419.html "A Small Voice, But a Strong Voice"] - A short documentary about Ralph Carr that won the 2006 National History Day competition.