Curricular materials of the past have much to offer researchers and educators today. In this article, I examine two pieces of instructional material, a textbook entitled "People of Denver" and a unit on the inequalities of opportunities available to minority groups in Denver. Both these items were written in Denver, by Denver teachers at mid-twentieth century, and were intended for use in eighth and ninth grade classrooms. In the article, I use a contemporary multicultural framework to analyze these texts and describe their potential for critical, anti-racist, transformative education. I argue that the construction and content of these texts can inform how we think about historical curricular materials, remind us that the work to achieve socially relevant pedagogy has historical precedent, and guide our research and teaching with regard to the creation of relevant, meaningful, and inclusive classroom materials. (Contains 2 notes.)