Ralph L. Carr was born in Rosita, Colorado, and his family later moved to Cripple Creek, where he graduated from Cripple Creek High School in 1905. He earned a law degree and in 1929 was appointed U.S. Attorney for Colorado. Elected Governor of Colorado in 1938, he had long supported the rights of minorities and working-class people, whose votes helped him win office. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an Executive Order authorizing the forced evacuation of people of Japanese, German, and Italian descent into internment camps in several states, including Colorado. Carr publicly opposed this removal, a position that was not well received. Believing that most American families had origins outside the U.S. and that America was a culturally diverse nation, he took a stand that brought about his political ruin.