America's Youngest Lt. Governor - Colorado Lt. Governor Joe Rogers

Ebony, March, 2000 by Charles Whitaker

Indeed he has. For example, when Colorado Secretary of State Vikki Buckley, the second-highest-ranking Black in state government, died suddenly of a heart attack in June, Rogers protested publicly when the governor stalled the ceremonial lowering of the state flags to half-mast. (Owens said he needed to see what the federal protocol was for such a gesture; the flags were never lowered.)

The resulting dispute, which played out in the pages of local newspapers, galvanized Rogers' support in the Black community, but it also cemented the impression that he is a new breed of politician, one who is not easily silenced by party allegiances.

"I have a unique opportunity to serve and fight for the interests of all of the people of Colorado," Rogers says. "That's what we were elected to do and that's what we intend to do."

Political activism is in Rogers' blood. His mother's father, in addition to being the pastor of a United Methodist church and president of the Omaha NAACP chapter, ran for the Omaha School Board in 1960 (a race he lost). He ultimately was elected to the board of education in 1970.

Rogers, the second of four boys, moved to Denver with his mother and two of his brothers when his parents divorced in 1966. The going was tough. His mother worked several jobs to keep food on the table and clothes on her sons' backs, but the family still wound up on public assistance. Yet there was hope. "I remember not wanting to see my mom feel bad for not being able to feed us," he says, "but you know, we never really dwelled on the tough times. Mama always said, `You can do anything. You can achieve anything you want.' That was the foundation she gave us, that we could do it."

The trouble for young Joe was figuring out what "it" was. At first it seemed to be music. He was a talented trumpet player and drum major of the school marching band. But he realized that although he had some skill, he didn't have the passion to be a professional musician. Tennis was another of his great loves, but that attachment wasn't great enough either.

In the back of his mind, however --planted there by the ideals of his grandfather--was the notion that public service was his calling. He decided that law would be the vehicle to get him there.

It was an odd thought. "I had never even met a lawyer before I went to law school," he says. But once he got the idea, it stuck.

Following Rogers' high school oratorical success, he entered college at Colorado State University--majoring in business--with new confidence and a different attitude about his academic career. He led several campus organizations while working his way through school and earned a scholarship to Arizona State University Law School. During law school, his speaking skills helped distinguish him again. He won the American Bar Association's National Negotiation Competition, which helped him land the sort of prime summer associate jobs that ultimately got him to the Denver firm of Davis, Graham & Stubbs after graduation.

He was on his way to a fast-track career as a commercial litigator when that political hankering called. Tapped by then-U.S. Sen. Hank Brown, a Colorado Republican, to be his staff counsel, Rogers moved to Washington in 1993, where he was permanently bitten by the political bug.