Polly Baca was born on a small farm in Weld County and grew up in Greeley, Colorado. She overcame local bigotry and segregation in the 1940s and ’50s to graduate from College High School with a joint honor scholarship. At Colorado State University in Fort Collins, she found her calling for community leadership and politics.
Baca worked for President Lyndon Johnson as a public information officer for the White House InterAgency Committee on Mexican Americans. She was the National Deputy Director of the 1968 “Viva Kennedy” Presidential Campaign. Working alongside Latino American civil rights activists Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta and Bert Corona, she helped win California for then President-elect John F. Kennedy.
She joined with other Latino leaders to found the National Council of La Raza, which became the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States.
Baca continues to stand with and be a strong voice for underserved communities in Denver and in all of Colorado.