See also: War of the Word -- Denver's Columbus Day Parade Rhetoric Spells Out the Same Bumpy Route
The big protests started in the early '90s, when plans to resurrect the parade were protested by Native American groups and other activists who considered Columbus Day a celebration of genocide -- and the Italian organizers fought back. "This isn't your country anymore," one told Colorado AIM's Glenn Morris in 1992. "This is our country now, so get with the program."
Instead, the opponents got with the protests, and Columbus Day confrontations became annual sights in Denver, with protesters regularly shutting down the parade and then getting arrested -- only to have the charges later dropped.
In 2011, Columbus Day seemed on a particular collision course. While the annual Columbus Day Parade was gearing up downtown, the anti-Columbus Day protesters were gathering outside the Capitol -- right by Occupy Denver. And Occupy Denver had planned its own march through downtown at noon, right as the parade, and the protests it eternally inspires, wound down. But somehow, it all came off without a hitch... or an arrest.
The 2014 parade will kick off downtown at 10 a.m.; find the route map here.