Ralph Lawrence Carr

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Ralph Lawrence Carr
Ralph Lawrence Carr
In office 1939 – 1943
Lieutenant(s)	John C. Vivian
Preceded by	Teller Ammons
Succeeded by	John C. Vivian

Born	December 11, 1887 Rosita, Colorado
Died	September 22, 1950 Denver, Colorado
Political party	Republican
Spouse	(1)Gretchen Fowler (2)Eleanor Farrall Howe
Profession	lawyer, newspaper editor

Ralph Lawrence Carr (December 11, 1887 - 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 went to school there. 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.