"Blacks and the Boulder Dam Project": manuscript draft by Roosevelt Fitzgerald

Blacks and the Boulder Daw Project by Roosevelt Fitzgerald

A

As the United States moved ever-deeper into the Great Depression of the 1930s, millions of Americans'lit­ erally "took to the road" in search of work. To the outside observer, the quest might have at times seemed irrational, for Americans in'the east and mid­ west often-headed for the far west, and yet .some of those in the last-mentioned region moved to urban areas of the eastern portions of the nation, hoping that their prospects for work would improve.

These east-west.and west-east commuters often attempted to'avoid.Nevada. For years travelers had• dreaded crossing the arid Great Basin area, in spite of the completion of the Lincoln Highway, a major transcontinental highway that traversed the state, in 192b. Travel remained difficult by automobile, and in the very early days of the depression, Nevada

was not viewed as an area with particularly bright economic prospects, particularly when mineral-produc­ tion began to drop sharply in 1930.' Tn the popular mind, Nevada was. regarded as a dry and barren place,

with few possible prospects. The population, was low, totalling slightly over 91»000 in 1930. The largest town in the southern portion, Las Vegas, had- "remained, a small railroad-.city’with only about 5.,000 residents..

■The■Black population of Nevada totalled 516 in

1930,. Then, as now, the bulk of the Blacks lived in

and around Clark and Washoe counties; the former had 150 Black inhabitants, and the latter 143. These total

comprised. 57% of the number of - Black's in the. state., with the remainder scattered throughout the area,-

The presence of Blacks in. Nevada can be traced back

to the 1850s and.to Jim Beckwourth, the discoverer of the Truckee Pass„/+ Throughout the period of the second half

of the nineteenth century. Blacks had. lived and worked in Nevada, their, occupations ranging from professionals to

common laborers,5 And Blacks had been, residents in Las Vegas since the early years of settlement. A few were among the work crews which brought, the railroad to the town. Some of these remained and became property owners.

"While there seem to have been no overt acts of hostility directed against them, the manner in.which they were perceived by white Nevadans was no secret. Early legis­ lation had placed numerous restrictions on them. An aura of racism permeated the state. Those who might not have been anti-Black were sometimes anti-Mexican, anti­ Chinese , or -anti-Indian. . The railroad .town of Las. Vegas started in 1905, and inhabitants arrived from various sections of the country: as they came, they brought their prejudices with them. These prejudices remained dormant, initially, because, there were so few members

of minority groups in the area. Thomas Sowell describes the situation very well when he states that*

a certain benign contempt may exist, toward
a group that is clearly on the bottom and showing no signs of rising. But once they reach, the stage of becoming threats to others ’ jobs or status, a much more active and in­ tense hatred.may develop. This is sometimes referred to as 'good race relations’ turning, to hostility. Rising ethnic groups are the

greatest threat to others, at or near the bottom— including other minorities.'

There were numerous occasions when the prevailing racial climate manifested itself.® .These, present in­

sight’s into the racial atmosphere at the time. Even in the .matter of. peopling the new tovaesite there were neg­ ative racial overtones. Minorities were referred to as

undesirables, and the. area near the red.light district was to- be .set apart for them since "it would make little difference to colored people and foreigners about living ■so close, to the Red Light districl^V^

During the next twenty years in Las Vegas there was not much improvement in the status quo. Bv 1920

there/.were only 246 Blacks in the entire state.; Clark County contained 60. of these, and 69 were in Washoe. The first quarter of the twentieth century saw rad riots in many areas of the United States, and those were often reported in the local newspaper.10 Nevada itself was not

immune, to racist activities. A. reorganized K.u KIox Kian was organized in the Silver ‘State. However, in the 1920s, there' were no reports of race riots in Nevada. EdwariS-
Y. Clarkehad taken over the promotion of the KKK. from its founder William J. Simmons,,-had- "by appealing
to everyone who held .a grudge against some minority group and .promJ sing joiners the immunity of secrecy soil 9

mem.bershipr throughout the South and West, and even pene­

trated the Northeast."

There is some evidence that

x

•there was conflict - between, the home o fice and its Nevada branch: "in the Federal Court in Carson City

the Geo-irgia KKK filed a. $50,000 subt against the Nevada KKK .in ii struggle for jiirisdiction.!if12 Although it '

might stBern that the rac.iLal- climate :Ln Nevada was approp- riots for Klan successes, the few investigations of the subject that have to this point been carried out indicate

the contrary: although various types. of prejudice were pro;sent 1n Las Vogas and in Nevada. genorally, the Klan

its.elf cLid not emerge as |O i B apowerful r’QCIL?

Whi le there seem to have been no - incidents- of actual phy;3leal violence direct?Zd against the very small popula— tion of Blacks in Las Vegas from the time of its fovruling

■ through the 1910s, forms .of discrimins/tion abounded. Economic deprivation was one. of the me?sns by which, racism manifested itself. The report of a met5ting of the Union Pacific Shop Federation gives an indie?ition of how this

was sometimes accomplished:

We'the Americans of the entire; shopcraft of all departments in the shoj)s and yards on the L.A. & S.L. request the>t no man

. -withouttheirCitizenPapers1je•hired.
And that none other than AmerJLean Citizens ’ be promoted or permitted, to lcBarn a trade. And that none but white men beb promoted as

we feel that it is not fair fc>r us to be compelled to work with them iii shops.

While it is probably true that this stsitem-ent was directed primarily at the exclusion of Asians, t;he fact that it was felt that "only" white men should be pr■omoted automatical1y excluded Blacks and other minorities,

This was particular! meaningful in the light of the fact that not only were then so few Blacks in Las Vegan, but also that few were interest

in even -coming to Nevada, The. overwhelming majority of Blacks involved in the exodus from the South went to urban areas of the North:

Approximately 1,4 million Negroes came North from 1910 to 1930 and experienced relative prosperity in contrast to their

condition in the South...,The labor demand. remained brisk during the 1920*s and Negroes entered unskilled manual jobs in the rapidly growing, automobile and steel plants, foundries, highway construction, railroad maintenance and the garment.. industry?—for the most'part, taking jobs

which the native born or foreign workers had vacated as better op opportunities opened for - them,-.".-'

There had been.no war industries located in southern Nevada during.- World War I, nor did any industries locate in the area during the 1920s, .For this reason jobs were compara­ tively scarce., and the few Blacks present wore viewed as threats by- the local white population.

ci (K- y1 h —4^-—

The question of the status of Blacks would be posed in a new form as a result of the drafting of the Colorado River Compact in 1922 by commissioners from seven states, and the passage, of the Boulder Canyon Project Act by Congress in 1928.

During 1929, just prior to the onset of the stock market crash .and■the beginnings of an era of depression, the Swing-Johnson

Bill, .which authorized the construction of a dam at Black

Canyon on the Colorado River, was passed by Congress. For

southern Nevada, this meant the generation, of thousands ■ of.

hew. jobs and the construction of an entirely new community;

and as the depression deepened, in the early 1930s, Americans

from all parts of thpbountry looked to the project as a possible solution to their own pressing economic straits.$ Although by

1931 it was clear that the depression was fundamentally affecting all classes and segments of American society, the. situation was particularly critical for the country’s Black population, which had been in a depressed position throughout

.the 1920s. Blacks as a group had ranked with many farmers, tenants, sharecroppers, and laborers in depressed industries as being outside of the general prosperity of the 1920s. Tradi­ tionally the last hired and the first fired, the victims of

job discrimination all over the country, Black people unfortunately were as a group .involved in their own private depression, long before the onset of the great depression itself,m

Since various types of public works projects were viewed by political -and .economic leaders of nearly all persuasions
as being vital in the restoration of economic health to the nation, .it is important to examine just how the projects them­ selves were administered, in. order to determine the impact these economic activities had on the areas involved, the various

x

classes of individuals, local and sectional businesses, and minority groups. It is also important to determine how the national political leadership viewed the nature of the crisis and. what needed to be done to meet it. Specifically, if effective relief measures were being instituted during the time of the construction of Boulder

Dam, then employment problems at the local.level would
have .to be viewed as being of comparatively less importance, for families could be assured of at least?subsistence level'

of existence without the necessity of immediately finding, work. . ■,

The hiring situation on the Boulder Dam Project takes
on a more important dimension when it is realized.that during the final yearsbf the administration of Herbert Hoover, when

the construction actually got under way in 1931, 1932, and 1933, ^RraBki±nx0xzR00xeyeSiw^qw^wqwgwqw^w4w^wqMqvqkqw3j9^^vwwwvwwwvw

there was no extensive relief program administered by the federal government in spite of the fact that approximately ■sixteen million Americans were unemployed in the last year mentioned. Hoover had inherited the problems that led to the

nation’s worst depression, and he of course immediately started to inherit much of the undeserved blame for its origins. His administration even today remains a source of conflicting historical.interpretation, although it does seem evident that in terms of relief programs, he placed major emphasis on local and state governments and voluntary cooperation:

I am willing to pledge myself that if the time should ever come that the voluntary agencies of the country together with the local and state governments are unable to find resources with which to prevent hunger and suffering in my country, I will ask the aid of every resource of the- Federal Government because I would no more see starvation amongst our countrymen than would any Senator or Congressman. I have faith in the. American, people that such a day will not come.V^

And Hoover generally held to this position in 1932 and early 1933, that the ■’’day” had "not come" when full-scale federal intervention was requrid to alleviate widespread suffering. Such an approach

affected -all American citizens who were out of work, and not

merely Blacks. But the situation was often particularly distressing

for Blacks, since their economic status had been so poor prior

to.the depression, and since they often were the first to be

released from work when economic conditions were depressed.

Further, Blacks often worked at low-paying, unskilled jobs, and

had less in the way of financial reserves to fall back upon when they became unemployed^/Hoover’s view, however, was that the

federal government could go only so far in intervening, and no further. -While not personally a racist, Hoover's failure to institute dramatic, federally-sponsored relief programs affected a great proportion of the population, especially those who

were disadvantaged to begin with. Still,.aS he stated,

my determined objective was to avoid concen­ tration of power in the Federal government with its inevitable corruption, by maintaining local responsibility with a non-partisan action to insure freedom from politics in so human a service. The local organizations knowing their own towns­ people were able to administer with sympathy and according to need.\,$z

By leaving such human services in the hands of local people
Hoover did a great disservice to Blacks, because local, author­ ities were usually not particularly concerned with their plight.
And the programs remained hopelessly inadequate for all Americans.'/

7

Hoover’s own reputation with regard to Blacks and other •minorities-is a mixed one. Just as he has .sometimes failed to

receive credit for the moderate and limited brand of progressivism- he embraced in fighting the depression)^© also has his reputation

suffered with respect to his attitudes toward Blacks. With

regard to governmental actions and their desirability, it is clear that he believed only a limited amount of progress toward the achieving a just society could be achieved:

we' in America have had too much experience of
life to fool ourselves into pretending that all
men are equal in ability, in character, in . intelligence, in ambition. That was the claptrap of the French Revolution. We have grown to under­ stand that all we can hope to assure to the .indivi­ dual through government is liberty, justice, intellectual welfare, equality of Opportunity,

and stimulation to servipe.^tF ' yy

However, this same Hoover "supported his wife’s right to entertain

a black woman in the White House, demanded an increased budget for

Howard University, commuted the sentence of a black man convicted

of murder without due process, and recommended that the new

federal parole board proportionately represent the number of blacks and women in prison."2-7 While Secretary of Commerce, he had

abolished segregation within that Department. 2Z| These and other positive acts on his part were overshadowed by his nomination of

Judge Alton B.Parker as a Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court in 19)0. Parker had in 1920 stated that "the Negro was neither ready for the burdens and responsibilities of government, nor did he desire to participate," and the NAACP spearheaded a success­ ful effort to bring about a rejection of the nomination... To some, Hoover was "the man. in the lily white house.. ”26 Waitifer White, Executive Secretary of the NAACP, thought that "Hoover’s intran­ sigence in the Parker case permanently alienated Negroes. The

Negro vote placed, a. very considerable part in the overwhelming rejection of the Republican candidate in favor of Franklin I). Roosevelt in the 1932 presidential election." 27 (extra fn; see p.

III.

By the time the' Boulder Dam Project got' underway in jQ3]. . there were over million unemployed individuals
in the United States; this figure would rise to million hy the time Roosevelt was inaugurated in March, 1935, when

approximately one out of every American workers was un­ employed. Many of those without work followed up numerous leads in order to obtain work, and when Congress finally

appropriated funds for work on the dam, a rush to Nevada began; "From all parts of the country.they pour into Vegas. i>here Was not enough housing to accomodate all

and most would not have been able to afford beyond, a "flop house." They built huts and out of nearly material which happened Io he. at

There were Blacks among these newcomers who came, seeking work, and in short order the Black'population of Clark' County jumped from about 6.0 to approximately 1.50• Those "flop houses" available to whites were not available to Blacks. The Black prospective worker had to deal with the realities of scarce housing and poor living conditions as well as prejudice. The circumstances of the white workers and prospective workers'were of course not ideal,

but were better and then improved considerably when the
Six Companies and the Federal Government provided low cost housing near the dam site for workers there: "Boulder City, cost the- government $1,1.35,000 and the Six Companies $780,000

■for a total of. almost $2,000,000. This expenditure was made to insure the maximum of comfort for the workmen who were to

be employed on the project arid the establishment of this model town."''

M£>.

A/.... ,,. .

//

The contract for ■The project .waft lot on April 20, 1931. Governor Balzar thought that the construction work would mean "the expenditure of many millions of dollars, and presages a long period of prosperity for all classes of our people, .but especially for those who are engaged■in

industry'."
light of the earlieY' report or the Union Pacific whop ■

Fedbratiz^U, and With one withe specifications of. the Boulder Dam Project corjXract which stated th.a.w’1Mongolians cou'M not be- employed't hoVi of tliose statem/nt\ may be

regardedAaselements /n the atmosphere of the t.times which pointed to possible Aiscriminar^on of some sort A- fta terms

However, this r/tatembnt has to be read J.n the

\Jy\/

o t o

■_L.
employment was actually handled on the project,

to have been a tendency \to refer to positive
Ln terms of the effects they would have on.whites,

T.ocal labor groups attempted to place yet an additional

restriction on hiring by suggesting- that employees be "bona

fide" citizens of Nevada. -y~ The contract would bring about

competition for those jobs. A set of rather shaky employ­ ment circumstances already existed. Because of the shortage of jobs and the--intense competition for those that went available, tension and strain were evident on the local labor scene almost from the beginning.. Petitions for protection

major labor changes iS/\£

Vegasa ’hot only would it thousands of new jobs, but it would also.foster acute

Regarding employment of' local labor for the building work the petitions which
have been circulated by local laboring
men asking the school board to do what
it could to see that local labor was
used as much as possible, was turned over by the board to Mr. Sorenson, of the con­ tractors, Ryberg and Sorenson....He stated

his company intends as far as possible to M bi-re local labor*33 /£

Thus, the question of local versus outside labor remained.
a problem. Tn addition, a portion of the local labor market

■was not even considered: the Black residents of Las Vegas A year later, Blacks still had not been counted as g part of the labor market. At an open meeting in which Blacks

discussed their plight, the following was reported by a local newsnaner:

Specific instances were, cited by various . speakers in which building'programs and

construction work was under progress with no Negro labor .whatsoever. It was charged that on some of these jobs there were foreigners working while Negro American citizens were denied employment.

It was charged that while Blacks were expected to fulfill their responsibilities as. citizens of■ the. United States, their rights as. citizens were ignored and not protected. "When the call to arms came in the Great War our government called for American citizens, regardless of color. There are many .ox-servicemen among the local Negro settlement.

Many’ of them arc unable to obtain work. " e
As preparations got underway for what came to be called

the Boulder Canyon Project, the condition of local Blacks

worsened, 'for "the influx of newcomers to the area made Black chances of employment, smaller. This was the case because white newcomers were given •preference for jobs not only over local Blacks, but also over those. Blacks who came in search of employment. The flood of workers alarmed both local Blacks and local whites. They feared, that the near-certainty of their chances for employment

was being diminished. While it is true that certain res­ trictions had been, placed irkdetermining who would be eligible for. employment, particularly on the dam project, these restrictions in■practice were often'circumvented. For example, the Attorney General had ruled that any citizen who had resided six months in the state of Nevada, thirty days In any county, and ten days in any precinct,

was entitled to consideration as a resident for public works and highway projects. •

The Six .Companies did not feel obligated to function with any limitations on who would be hired, except for the restriction on. Mongolians. Following an investigation in which charges that Clark County residents were being denied jobs, a report was filed by T. L. Wilcox, one of the

I tf-

investigators:

With reference to men employed on Boulder Dam, the Six Companies are not required
by contract or special provision to regard local preference, but can hire citizens of the United States from any state providing veterans are given preference. 37

In spite of any alleged protective ■.devices, local Blacks received no benefits. The early stages of the dam construc­ tion centered around the diversion-of the waters of the .Colo- rado River through man-made tunnels.'''5 The number of workers

utilized on this alone would suggest that there would have been more than enough jobs for local laborers. The newspaper reported that there were "some 1,139 men- now at work on tunnels alone, " This .involved some blasting, but primarily it was a task of excavation. Common laborers were vised’, extensively. Only.minimal skills were required. Indeed, there was no sizeable work force in the United States with experience building dams. Mr. Joe ICine, a long-time resident of Boulder City, had this to say about his background in construction before coming to Nevada:

I came to Nevada in 1931 from Missouri. I was looking for work just like everybody else. At that time people were living in tents out here

at the dam. I went out there
I had never done this kind, of
what- I could see nobody had.
as we went along. When I started.off they were still digging the tunnels. • T worked there for

a while. After that I became a high scaler . and that’s what I did until I. retired in 1974, 4'’

and went to work. work before. From We just learned

The lack of experience., however, was the reason given by W. A. Bechtel, President of the Six Companies, for the

absence' of Blacks on the project. He. stated that '
"he had never heard of any refusal to employ Colored people

and -that he would take .the matter up immediately on his • . return to Boulder City, and see that provision was made for their .employment on the work when and if they had the

necessary experience. On the basis.of the evidence, three conclusions may be suggested: (1) Blacks were required to have 'experience and whites were not; (2) Mr. Bechtel was either not cognizant of the absence of .Blacks from, the work force, or it did not matter to him;-and (3) Affirmative

action of any sort did not exist at that time. It is^ clear that in order for the rights ..of Blacks .to be protected safe­ guards beyond those for whites were necessary.

,1 During the first year of construction on the dam project thousands of men had'been employed, there was a.constant turnover in.the labor force. Thousands of different men appeared on.the roster of workers. .An example of the high rate of change may be shown by reference to just one month: "During the first fifteen days of December the labor'turnover

averaged thirteen per day....There were three hundred thirty-

nine men hired during this period."
Black, and that trend generally continued throughout the construction of the dam.

Co­
None of those hired■wa;

Quite a bit of confusion existed in the entire hii'.ing process.. Preference was to be given to Nevada residents who were- also veterans, but newcomers to the area quickly ful­

filled residency requirements. The local chamber of commerce became involved, in a program of identification. It stated that 'it "is not registering- men■ who have lived here, less than one year," and that it had "checked the references and approved of 138 white lien and 37 colored inon who have been

residents a year and longer.’’^Mccording; to this tabulation,-

there were a total -of 175 men who were bona fide residents •that-.had been checked. Whether the Chamber’s report was exhaustive .or all-inclusive is not very' important. What is important is the fact that such a small number of Macks, should, not have presented much of a problem as far as employ­ ment. is concerned.. .. With over 4,000 workers needed, it would appear that the 37 Blacks who qualified would have had at least some representation in the workforce at the work site. But the hiring practices of the local office of the Nevada Office of Labor in Las Vegas must be considered. For example

Mr. Leonard Blood, Deputy Director of the state office, Suggested that Blacks should not be hired on the project

.because, the!r presence would cause tension with the white

workers Z0ih addition to this

■he thought there would . be

'’difficulties of housing and feeding ’colored labor,’ and th cost of providing separate facilities for them... J'4-*- This

statement of the need for segregated facilities for Black workers was but a. mirror of the realities of segregation, in Hevada'.

The complaints which- were constantly being lodged again the. Six Companies by both local white laborers and by- Blacks created an. untenable situation with the local labor office. Everyone- in a. position of authority, it seems, attempted to shift thi?- responsibility to someone- else. In the meantime, those who were unemployed because of discrimination were "doing without. ”.

. A concerted effort was necessary to bring about a chahg This effort had. to come not only, from the victims of discrim­ ination,. but also from those people in authority who had the power to bring about needed changes. One of these was Senat' Tasker L. Oddie who, according to a local newspaper "took
up the cudgels for the Colored race...bringing about an inve; gation which resulted in a conference between. W. A. Bechtel, President of -the Six Companies, ^n^Sp^r^ta^y Wilbur of the Department of the Interior." "i ' These invest!gations ultimatf did bring about some changes. In an open letter, Walther

.White, .Executive Secretary.of the NAACP, had this to say to the Black .‘population of Las Vegas concern]ng the results of the conference:

/I am writing to give you the latest information ■ on the.matter of employment .of Negroes at

Boulder Dam. .The following, information has just

been received by us from Secretary of the • Interior Ray. Lyman Wilbur: ’Since writing \to you on June 6- I am advised by the Six

Companies, Inc. that when additions to the force are made the company will arrange to giveemploymenttoNegrolabor. 1 hb/31

Approximately a month later the first- Blacks were hired on the Project. This was reported in the local newspaper. The article stated .that "during the past few days ten Negroes have been. employed on Hoover Dam, being the first of their race to be so

|ggip-4

,
employed. ". J Ten Blacks out of a workforce in excess, of four

thousand is a miniscule percentage, but the impression created in the newspapers seem to have suggested- something quite to the . contrary:' .

The Colored people of Las Vegas, have made
a persistent campaign to obtain the just treatment in this matter which the Con­ stitution of the United States guarantees to them. When the matter finally came to the attention of the Secretary of the In­ terior through the National Bar Association measures were taken to assure the Colored people of their just proportion of the work on this project. It is gratifying, not alone, to the. people of African descent, but to all lovers of fair, play that this ques­ tion of Negro labor on Hoover Dam has been settled with justice and fairness.

/ >

By the time these.first ten Blacks had been hired on the project, the number of Blacks who fulfilled the requirements for employment greatly exceeded the initial figure of thirty-s0von. Now there were several hundred Blacks in Las Vegas. These, along with the local chapter of the NAACP, which-had been organized that same year under the leadership of Mr. Arthur

MeCants, continued, to petition for additional Jobs for Blacks. According to a letter written by,the Deputy Labor Commissioner, small'increases were made: "As regards discrimination against

?

/f

race, after a good many meetings the Six Companies finally requested some. Colored Labor and at the present time twenty- five of their race are working on the project."50

In later months and years, the number of Blacks allowed to

work on the project fluctuated constantly. "By -October, of

19.13, a report by Mead ■ revealed that 65 had been hired, most!

KI
for road work,'- This may well have been the high point in

Black hiring, because by”the spring of. 1939 only 11 Blacks were working out of a total force of over 9,500*

Blacks continued their fight for jobs on the project throughout the duration of the construction of the dam. Once

the’dust had settled and all concerned were convinced that

they had done enough-—that the token gestures bad been rrtade--

Blacks were once again forgotten. In this respect, then.

even the Mew Deal itself asi it operated in Nevada on the

.Boulder Ecm Project, proved to-be the same "old deal" for Blacks. It is ironic that even on a project located at t e Black Canyon, Blacks were not welcome.

J

20

Notps

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

James Hulse, The Nevada Ad-venture (Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1969), p. 228.

U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Sixteenth Census of the U.S. 1940, Part 4, p. 722.

Hafer, Mountain Men and The Fur Trade

Elmer Rusco, Good Time Coming.(Westport. Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1975), PP. 136-1.37. .

Ibid, p. 21..

6. Thomas' Sowell, Race and Economy (New York: David McKay Co. Inc., 1975), P. 162.

7. Las Vegas Age, November 25, 1905, "Every Race Has Its Flag
But The Coon". April 20, 1907, Fatal Race Riot". November
21, 1.908, "Chinese Seek Restitution"* January 14, I.91.O, "Trailing Qiieho". July 31, 1909, " Indian Henry Murdered"., November 20, I.909, "Vicious Assault by White Man on Mexican". January 1.4, 1.91’0, "Establishing Desert Negro Colony". November 23, 1909, "Willie Boy is Dead in San Bernardino Mountains".

8. Walther Bracken to H, I. Bettis, March 21, I91.I, Union Pacific File, Special Collections., UNLV.

9. Las Vegas Age, November 21., 1908, Biloxi, Mississippi, "Mob of White Men Lynch Negro Charged With Assault on a White Girl". November 20, i.909, Cairo, Ill., "Infuriated Mob

Lynches Negro and White Man." November 20, I.909, Los Angeles, "Raid Japanese Sections in California Towns", September 28, 1.906, Atlanta, Georgia, "Race Riot in Atlanta". October 20, 1.906, Editorial, "Mob Law Rampant in The South".

10. John D. Hicks. Republican Ascendancy (New York: Harper and ' Row, Pub. CO., I960), p. 95.

11. Las Vegas. Age, February 20, 1.926, p. 1.

12. Las Vegas Age, May 17, 1919, p. 4.

13. Louis Ferman, Negroes and Jobs (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1.968), p. 11.

1.4. Caroline J, Hadley, ed. , Hevada Mag1zine, "Hoover Dara: 40 Years Old", Vol. 36, No. 4, 1.976, p. 35.

15. United States Statutes at Large, Vol, XLV, Part 1, p.1,065.

16. Studs Terkel, Hard Times (New York: Avon Books, 1.970), p. 104.

17. Robert Sobel, Herbert Hoover At The Onset of The Great Depression 1929-1930 (New York: J. B. Lippineptt Co., 1975), PP. 102-103.

18. Herbert Hoover, The Memoirs of Herbert Hoover: The Great Depression 1.929-1.941 (New. York: The Macmillan Company, 1,952)

p. 448.

19. Elliott Rosen, Hoover, Roosevelt and The Brains Trust (New York: Columbia University Press, 1.977), p. 46.

20. Joan H, Wilson, Herbert Hoover: Forgotten Progressive (Boston: Little Brown, and Co., 1975), p. 186.

21. Ibid, p. 129.

22. E. E..Robinson, Herbert Hoover; President of the United-States (Stanford, California: Hoover Institution Press, 1.975), pp..~T46’47.

23. Walther White, A Man Called White (New York: The Viking Press, 1.948), p. 104.

24. Ibid, pp. 114-115..

2.Carl.Degl-er,Out.ofOurPast(NewYork:HarnerandRowPub. Co., 1970), p. 396/

26. Portland Sunday Telegram, October 9, 1932, p. 3.

27. Ibid.

28. Organization, Operation of U.S. Department of Labor Employ­ ment Office, Blood File, Special Collections, UNLV.

29. Biennial Report Commissioner of Labor, Appendix to Journal of Senate and Assembly, Vol. I, 1931, Carson City, Nevada, State Printing Office, p. 5*

30. Paul L. Kleinsorge, The Boulder Canyon Project: Historical and Economic Aspects (Palo Alto, California: Stanford Univ- ersity Press, 1.941), P« 204. "Open Shop", New Republic. Vol.

67, June 24, 1.931, P. 147.

31. Telegram, H.C, Gardett to Leonard Blood, July 9, 1931, 590-50 NL-FX, Los Angeles, California, Blood File, Special Collections, UNLV.

32. Las Vegas Age, January 5, 1930, p,3. 33. Las Vegas Age, December 19, 1931, p. 3. 34. Ibid.

35. "Investigation Regarding Discrimination Against Clark County Residents", Blool to Royal, Blood File, Special Collections, UNLV.

36. Ibid.
37° Las Vegas Age, December 20, 1931, p. 5° 4yJv

J B-gr k lc 38. Ibid.

39.
1975, Boulder City, Nevada.

interview.with1 Mr. Joe Fine retired high scaler, December 2

40. Las Vegas Age, Jurie 18, 1.932, p. 4.

41.
42. Las Vegas Age, August 23, 1932, p. i.

Las Vegds Age, December 20, 1931, p. 5.

43.

45. Las Vegas Age, June 18, 1932, p. 4. 46. Ibid.
47. Las.Vegas Age, July' 8, 1932, p. 2. 46. Ibid

49. Blood to Royal, September 3, 1932, Blood File, Special Coll­ ections, UNLV.

50. Kluger, Lo.cit, 51. Ibid

Blood File, Sp>ecial Collections, UNLV.

44. '*Elwood Mead,

Irrigation Engineer and Social Planner," Un- published Dissertation by James Kluger, University of Ariz- ona, 1970, p. 205.

BLACKS AND THE BOULDER DAM PROJECT By Roosevelt Fitzgerald

As the United States moved ever-deeper into the Great Depression of the 1930's, millions of Americans literally

"took to the road" in search of work] To the outside observer, the quest might have at times seemed irrational, for Americans intheEastandMidnestoftenheadedforthefarWest. Simul­ taneously, those in the West moved to urban areas of the East. Both groups hoped that their prospects for work would improve.

These east-west and west-east commuters always sought to avoidNevada. Foryearstravelershaddreadedcrossingthe arid Great Basin area] This feeling did not change with the

completion of the transcontinental Lincoln Highway in 1926. Travel remained difficult except by train] The heat, lack of

facilities and isolated conditions greatly undermined travel by

automobile. In the popular mind, Nevada was regarded as a dry

andbarrenplacewithfewprospects. Thepopulationwaslow,

77 y<?z
totalling only 55,000 in 1920 and increasing to slightly over

91,000 in 1930. The largest town in the southern portion,
Las Vegas yet "remained a small railroad city with about 5,000 residents. .."■*■

The Black population of Nevada totalled 346 in 1920 and in- creasedalmost50%to516by1930. EventhoughtheBlackpop­

ulation increased in such numbers it yet remained less than one percent of the overall state’s population. Then, as now, the greater number of Blacks in the state resided in and around Clark and Washoe counties; the former had a total of 150 and the latter 143 in 1930. The totals of these two comprised 57% of the number of Blacks in the state, with 43% being scattered throughout the remainder of the state with the bulk being in the northern portion.

There was no reason to believe that the existing situation would change. Most of the work in the state was associated either withminingoragriculturalpursuits. Thishadbeenthecase

from the earliest days of settlement in the state. As the mines would be worked, miners would move on to new fields in Arizona, New Mexico, Montana and other places. The population of the

state at the turn of the century was to have a profound effect
on its development thirty years later. With the caning of the Spanish-American War of 1898 Nevada, like other places, was
called upon to do its share. When the first call to arms was
made in April of 1898, the state sent eighty-four men and officers.

In May the same number was requested making a total of 168 men andofficerswhoreportedforduty. InJune,416morewerecalled up but they never left Carson City due to the war taking a turn forthebetter. ThesewereallmusteredoutinNovemberof

1898.3 Itwasashortwarandmostofthemenreturnedhome unscratched. Theirgreatestthreathadbeenmalariaintheswamp- infested Spanish islands.

2.

Of course little had changed during their brief hiatus; working in the mines, chasing mustangs, punching cattle and running dairy farms still comprised their relatively quiet life style.
Las Vegas had come into existence with the arrival of the rail­ roadin1905. Blackshadbeenapartofthecrewswhichaccom­

plished this feat. Like other railroad crew members,, they had
to "rough" it. There had been no accommodations awaiting their arrival. They slept in the railroad yards in make-shift shacks and tents. Quarters were eventually constructed for these crews.
The city started on an optimistic note which has continued until

now.
Water has always been of optimum concern to Las Vegas.

It was the presence of the wash which had made "The Meadows" awaystationalongtheOldSpanishTrail. TheColoradoRiver, while affording life-sustaining water to the area, also brought with it its yearly springtime devastation. As early as 1914 when Arthur Davis became Director of the U. S. Bureau of Reclamation serious consideration was given to taming the river

4 by constructing a dam.

Damming the river was not merely a matter of putting up a structure across its path. There were other considerations, upper­

most of which was the question of how the benefits of a dam would aid those states of the Colorado River watershed. "Rights to draw
water from the Colorado River, the largest stream in the Southwest, havebeenfiercelydisputed. The.ColoradoRiverCompactof1922 determined the distribution of the waters of the Colorado River

between the upper basin states and the lower basin states.

3.

The members of this original Commission were W. S. Norwiel of Arizona, W. F. McClure of California, Delph E. Carpenter
of Colorado, J. S. Scrugham of Nevada, Stephen B. Davis of New Mexico, R. E. Caldwell of Utah and Frank C. Emerson of Wyoming.

From 1914 on, very serious consideration was given to con­ structing a dam. Engineers, geologists and other scientists
began to spend the cooler months doing preliminary studies in determing where such a dam should go. It was determined that
a place called Lee Ferry, in Arizona, separated the upper basin
from the lower basin. The needs of the two basins were considered and definite agreements had to be made by a majority of the Commission, including California. For the next ten years the debates would

rage on. One of the first which had to be addressed was that of navigation rights. Obviously, the navigatability of the river wouldbeaffectedbythechangeinitsdepth. Itwasultimately decided that domestic, agricultural and power purposes would

7

take precedence over navigation.

These three factors would

be the crux of the discussions between the members of the Com­

mission.
World War I took place during the interim — the war to end

all wars, to make the world safe for democracy. Once again

. .11) Nevada answered the call to arms, A statistical summary issued

by the War Department in 1919 credits Nevada with 5,103 men who served with the armed forces of the nation during the war.

It shows 30,808 registered, 3242 called, 3384 inducted, 3211 accepted and 1447 volunteers. The number 5,103 should have been

total of the number accepted plus the number of volunteers provided all of the volunteers were accepted. This would have made a grand total of 4658, a difference of 445 or just under

10%. Of the total number who served, 197 lost their lives in

9

action.
of4906veterans. Thisdoesnottakeintoconsiderationthose whoweremaimedinsomewayoranother. Thoseveteransofthe Spanish American war, in 1930, would have been at least 48 years old iftheyhadbeen16uponsigningonthedottedline. Thosewho were 16 at the beginning of World War I would have been 29 in 1930. The average age of the veteran in Nevada in 1930 was 39 years
old.

ThepopulationofNevadaincreasedquiteslowly. Thenine­ teenth century had seen the mountain men, immigrant groups on
the way to the gold fields of California and the later retro­ active migrations to the silver lodes of Northern Nevada. After the turn of the century, Las Vegas reappeared on the map by virtue of the coming of the railroad. Mining interests were penetrating southward to such places as Tonopah and Goldfield. To seme
extent these were the same miners who had been involved in mining concerns in the northern part of the state. Outsiders who
rushed to these new boomtowns accounted for the slight, gradual

increases in the state’s population.
Blacks were among these outsiders. They can be traced back

10

to the latter part of the 1820’s,
her first sighting of Blacks in the early 1840’s whom she

The total number of survivors would have been a maximum

Sarah Winnemucca reports

5.

describes as "men in a blazing fire."^ Early legislation, particularly the first State's Constitution, acknowledged their

presence by its efforts

placing restrictions on 12

affairs of the state.
nineteenth century, Blacks had lived and worked in Nevada; their

MM

occupations ranging from common laborers to professionals.

Anauraofracismpermeatedthestate. Thosewhomightnothave

been anti-Black were sometimes anti-Mexican, anti-Chinese, or

14

anti-Indian.
where the inhabitants had come from and which racial group or groupshadbeenthescapegoat/sintheirhometowns. Theybrought theirprejudiceswiththem. Thesebiasesmighthaveremaineddormant initially because there were so few members of racial minorities inthearea. Theirnumberspresentednoimmediatethreat.
Their lack of numerical strength also influenced their behavior.

"Be accommodating, be submissive, be humble and make no waves" seemstohavebeentheorderoftheday. ThomasSowelldescribes the situation very well when he states that:

...a certain benign contempt may exist toward a group that is clearly on the bottom and showing no sign
of rising. But once they reach the stage of becoming threats to others' jobs or status a much more active and intense hatred may develop. This is sometimes referred to as 'good race relations’ turning to hostility. Rising ethnic groups are the greatest

in first of all defining them and then their participation in the political

Throughout the latter quarter of the

These feelings were quite often determined by

6.

threat to others at or near the bottom—including other minorities.
Las Vegas, Nevada, in the early years, gives us an op­

portunity to analyze a classic example of this. While no

obvious racial hostilities were present here, there were

evidences of, at least an awareness of, these kinds of things in 16

other places.

Even in the matter of lot allocation in the

new town site there were negative racial overtones. Non white

racial groups were viewed as undesirable and less human than

others and as such were relegated to living in the block

adjacent to the "honky tonk" areas because local land agents

were convinced that it made "little difference to colored

people and foreigners about living so close to the Red Light

17 district."

During the next twenty years in Las Vegas there was not
much change in the status quo. By 1920, there were only 246 Blacks in the entire state. Cnee again, Clark and Washoe counties had almost half of the total. There were 60 in the former and

69 in the latter. The first quarter of the twentieth century saw racial riots in many areas of the United States and these

18

were often reported in the local media.
no riots in Nevada the state was not immune to racist activities. A reorganized Ku Klux Klan was organized in the Silver State. Edward Y. Clarke had taken over the promotion of the KKK from its founder William J. Simmons and "by appealing to everyone
who held a grudge against some minority group and by promising

While there were

7.

joiners the immunity of secrecy, Clarke and his agents sold
$10 memberships throughout the South and West, and even pene­ trated the Northeast."^ There is some evidence that there was

conflict between the home office and its Nevada branch: "In the Federal Court in Carson City the Georgia KKK filed a

$50,000 suit against the Nevada KKK in a struggle for juris­ diction. "20 Although it might seem that the racial climate in

Nevada was primed for Klan successes, such was not the case. While the inclination, the desire and the wherewithal were present for an actuated Klan in Nevada, the need for such was not there. Because of this absence, this nativist organization did not emerge as a powerful force.21

While there seem to have been no incidents of actual physical violence directed against the very small population of Blacks
in Las Vegas from the time of its founding through the 1920's, forms of discrimination abounded. We have seen this in early housing restrictions and exclusion from the political arena. Economic deprivation was one of the means by which racism manifesteditself. ThereportofaUnionPacificShopFederation gives us an indication of how this was sometimes accomplished:

We the Americans of the entire shopcraft of all depart­ ments in the shops and yards on the L.A. & S.L.
request that no man without their Citizen Papers
be hired. And that none other than American Citizens be promoted or permitted to learn a trade. And that none but white men be promoted as we feel that it is

8.

not fair for us to be compelled to work with them

22 in shops.

While it is probably true that this statement was directed primarily at the exclusion of Asians, the fact that it was felt that "only" white men should be promoted automatically excluded Blacksandotherminorities. Thiswasparticularlymeaningful

in the light of the fact that not only were there so few Blacks in Las Vegas, but also that few were interested in even coming toNevada. TheoverwhelmingmajorityofBlacksinvolvedinthe exodus from the South went to urban areas of the North:

Approximately 1.4 million Negroes came North from 1910 to 1930 and experienced relative prosperity in contrast to their condition in the South— The labor demand remained brisk during the 1920’s and Negroes entered unskilled manual jobs in the rapidly grow­ ing automobile and steel plants, foundries, highway construction, railroad maintenance and the garment

industry— for the most part, taking jobs which the native born or foreign white workers had vacated as

23

better occupational opportunities opened for them.
Not until funds were appropriated for the construction of
a Naval Munitions Storage Depot near Hawthorne, Nevada was
any military oriented industries located in Nevada. The entice­ ment for Black migration, as a result, did not evolve here as

itdidinthenorth. Jobswerescarceandforthisreason even the few Blacks who were here were viewed as possible

9.

threats and thus efforts were made to prevent them from competing with whites for those few jobs.

Itwasmorethanreducingthecompetion. Ithadmoreto
do with ambitions the realization of which would elevate the self-concept of Blacks. According to D. C. Cox the purpose of
this kind of prejudicial behavior is "...for the purpose of stigmatizing some group as inferior so that the exploitation
of either the group itself or its resources may both be justi­ fied." Predetermined stereotypes exist in the minds of those whites who are predisposed toward negative racial attitudes:
Asians do not require more than a bowl of rice per day, Indians
can survive where no others could, Mexicans would squander
away any money they would earn on good tequila and bad women and Blacks would have a tendency to "forget their place." Frederick Lewis Allen reminds us of the fears of some whites who, with
the coming of the automobile, began to complain about "uppity niggersonthehighways."25 "Almosteverywherewhitelabor
tended to exclude Negro workers from the unions,As the technology of the twentieth century created more and more jobs thereweremorewaysthatBlackswerevictimized. Unionmembership wasusuallyarequirementforemployment. Therewasnothingto safeguard that employment opportunities of Blacks would be insuredorprotected. IntheindustrialcentersBlackswould
only get jobs when union members would go out on strike and then onlyas"scabs". Theirworkinginthiscapacityservedonlyto

create even more alienation. Attempts were made by Blacks to qet

10.

involved in unions but to no avail. The first of these was that oftheFriendsofNegroFreedomin1920. ThencametheAmerican Negro Labor Congress meeting in Chicago in 1925 and finally that made by A. Philip Randolph with the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and Maids in 1925. While these did have some positive results, they did not extend all the way to Nevada.

Blacks in the decade of the 20's slowly increased from 246 in 1920 to 516 in 1930. The numbers, while obviously small, were as meaningful as those of the more populus northern urban centers. The lack of industry here, except for the railroad, precluded unionism as a requisite for employment. The Colorado River would change all of this. This river like others in the continental United States, had caused untold damage, loss of propertyandlife. Theeffectsoftheyearlyfloodsunder­ standably increased with the yearly expanding populating and developing of the fluvial plain. Thoughts of harnessing these rivers were not new. The act of dam construction was especially dams of the size, type and function of that which would be constructed at Boulder Canyon. A classic example of this was the failure of the St. Francis Dam of Southern California to hold on March 12, 1928.27

All of these factors were to come into play, simultaneously inClarkCounty,Nevada. Beingarelativelynewtownwitha reasonably small population and being caught between periods of prosperity, depression and war, Las Vegas offers a unique op­ portunity to observe the evolution of race relations in re­

11.

ference to the impact of economics. The question of the status of Blacks would be posed in a new form as a result of the drafting of the Colorado River Compact in 1922 by Commissioners from seven states and the passage of the Boulder Canyon Project ActbyCongressin1928. During1929,justpriortotheonset of the stock market crash and the beginnings of an era of depression, the Swing-Johnson Bill, which authorized the con­ struction of a dam at Black Canyon on the Colorado River,

was passed by Congress. For southern Nevada, this meant the generation of thousands of new jobs and the construction of an entirely new community; and as the depression deepened in the early 1930’s Americans from all parts of the country looked to the project as a possible solution to their own pressing economicstraits. Althoughby1931itwasclearthatthede­ pression was fundamentally affecting all classes and segments ofAmericansociety. Thesituationwasparticularlycritical for the country's Black population, which had been in a de­ pressedpositionthroughoutthe1920's. Blacksasagrouphad ranked with many farmers, tenants, sharecroppers, and laborers in depressed industries as being outside of the general pro­

sperity of the 1920's. Traditionally the last hired and the first fired, the victims of job discrimination all over the country, Black people unfortunately were, as a group,
involved in their own private depression long before the onset of the great depression itself.28

12.

Since various types of public works projects were viewed by political and economic leaders of nearly all persuasions as being vital in the restoration of economic health to the

nation, it is important to examine just how the projects them­ selves were administered in order to determine the impact these economic activities had on the areas involved, the various classes of individuals, local and sectional businesses and minority groups. It is also important to determine how the national political leadership viewed the nature of the crisis and what needed to be done to meet it. Specifically, if effective relief measures were being instituted during the time

of the construction of Boulder Dam, then employment problems
at the local level would have to be viewed as being of com­ paratively less importance, for families could be assured of
at least a subsistence level of existence without the necessity of immediately finding work.

The hiring situation on the Boulder Dam Project takes on
a more important dimension when it is realized that during the final years of the administration of Herbert Hoover when the construction actually got under way (tunnels and other supportive activities in 1931-1932 and the dam proper in 1933) there was'
no extensive relief program administered by the federal govern­ ment in spite of the fact that approximately sixteen million

Americans were unemployed in the last year mentioned.. Hoover had inherited the problems that led to the nation’s worst depression, and he of course immediately started to inherit

13.

much of the undeserved blame for its origins. His administration even today remains a source of conflicting historical inter­ pretation, although it does seem evident that in terms of
relief programs, he placed major emphasis on local and state governments and voluntary cooperation:

I am willing to pledge myself that if the time should ever come that the voluntary agencies of
the country together with the local and state governments are unable to find resources with
which to prevent hunger and suffering in my country, I will ask the aid of every resource of the federal government because I would no more see starvation amongst our countrymen than would any Senator or Congressman. I have faith in the American people that such a day will not come,29

Hoover generally held to this position in 1932 and early
1933, that the "day" had "not come" when full scale federal intervention was required to alleviate widespread suffering. Such an approach affected all American citizens who were out ofwork,andnotmerelyBlacks. Butthesituationwasoften particularly distressing for Blacks, since their economic status had been so poor prior to the depression, and since they often were the first to be released from work when economic conditionsweredepressed. Further,Blacksoftenworkedat

low-paying, unskilled jobs, and had less in the way of financial reserves to fall back upon when they became unemployed.30

14.

Hoover’s view, however was that the federal government could
go only so far in intervening and no further. While not person­ ally a racist, Hoover’s failure to institute dramatic, federally- sponsored relief programs affected a great proportion of the population, especially those who were disadvantaged to begin with. Still, as he stated,

my determined objective was to avoid concentration

of power in the Federal government with its inevi­

table corruption, by maintaining local responsibil­

ity with a non-partisan action to insure freedom

from politics in so human a service. The local

organizations knowing their own townspeople were

able to administer with sympathy and according to need.31

By leaving such human services in the hands of local people
Hoover did a great disservice to Blacks, because local authorities were usually not particularly concerned with their plight.
And the programs remained hopelessly inadequate for all Americans.,32

1927 could very easily, in the words of some old timers, be called the year of the floods. While the Colorado River was making its final impression on the people of the Basin half way across the country the Mississippi was wreaking its usualhavoc. Theworsefloodinmemorytookplacethatyear and as one went further down the river the flooding worsened., Herbert Hoover, who was Secretary of Commerce, was in charge of administering the relief program. He received so many com­

15.

plaints of the treatment of Blacks by the local Red Cross and the U. S. Department of Commerce Offices that Hoover finally appointed a "Colored Advisory Committee". Blacks were used as peons. They died by the hundreds because they were kept

33 working at the levels long beyond the point of no return.

Aid which had been sent to the disaster area in the form of food, clothing and medicine did not go directly to the refugees.

In those instances where Blacks lived on plantations these supplies were given to the landowners to dispense to its

tenants. Walter White reports that these items were sold to Blacks and as a result their indebtedness increased and thus

34

did this period of tenancy increase.
not necessarily sympathetic to the needs of their Black neighbors. Hoover, a man of integrity, erroneously believed the same to
be true of others.

Hoover’s own reputation with regard to Blacks and other minorities is a mixed one. Just as he sometimes failed to receive credit for the moderate and limited brand of progres-

35

sivism he embraced in fighting the depression,
his reputation suffered with respect to his attitude towards Blacks. With regard to governmental actions and their desira­ bility, it is clear that he believed only a limited amount of progress toward achieving a just society could be realized:

we in America have had too much experience of life to fool ouselves into pretending that all men are equal in ability, in character, in intelligence, in ambition. That was the claptrap of the French

Local authorities were

so also has

16.

Revolution. We have grown to understand that all we can hope to assure to the individual through government is liberty, justice, intellectual wel­

fare, equality of opportunity, and stimulation to

service.
However, this same Hoover "supported his wife’s right to enter­ tain a Black woman in the White House, demanded an increased budget for Howard University, commuted the sentence of a Black man convicted of murder without due process, and recommended that

the new federal parole board proportionately represent the number of blacks and women in prison."37 While Secretary of Commerce, he had abolished segregation within that Department.38

These and other positive acts on his part were overshadowed
by his nomination of Judge Alton B. Parker as a Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court in 1930. Parker had, in 1920, stated that

"the Negro was neither ready for the burdens and responsibilities

39

of government, nor did he desire to participate,"
NAACP spearheaded a successful effort to bring about a rejection of the nomination. To sone, Hoover was "the man in the lily white house."40 Walter White, Executive Secretary of the NAACP,

thought that "Hoover’s intransigence in the Parker case perma­ nentlyalienatedNegroes. TheNegrovoteplayedaverycon­ siderable part in the overwhelming rejection of the Republican candidate in favor of Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1932 presidential election.4^

and the

17.

Calvin Coolidge had approved the plan for the construction
of the dam in 1928. Congress had done the same. The following yeartheSwing-JohnsonBillhadbeenapproved. Thethreeofthese coincided with the beginning of the depression.

When the year turned in 1930 there was a strong note of optimism for all of Nevada and particularly for the southern portion. An editorial in a local newspaper attests to this.

We believe that Las Vegas today stands on the very threshold of that unparalled development from which

she is to emerge to metropolis of the state of Nevada

42

While predicting this auspicious growth and development it went

on to say that by the following year the population would have

doubled and that construction "and other factors that go to make up a progressive and attractive community"43 would have taken

place. Four pages later it points out that school enrollment had tripled in seven years44 and also that all crafts in this

city now unionized.1,45 Blacks, of course, were not members. The

report of the L« A. & S. L. of 1919 becomes blacker in its cover­

age.
It was no secret that the Dam was going to be built even

though as late as November of 1930 the Age complained that "Some busybodies are broadcasting to the world that Las Vegas

needs thousands of laborers to work on the railroad or the dam orsomething.1,46 Theonethingwhichwasholdingupthe"works"

wasArizona’sreluctancetoagreetotheagreement. Theob

and one of the great industrial centers of the west.

18.

jections raised by that state continued on through the follow­
ing year.However, certain logistical problems had to be addressed and in so doing would have lessened the burden of unemployment at least locally. C. P. Squires, editor of the
Las Vegas Age, was aware of this but was seemingly unable to reconcile this with other feeling to the effect that there were nojobsinVegas. Twodaysafterhisearliereditorialhe reports that "The crying need in Las Vegas just now is additional housing." His awareness of these needs was not new. In September he had said that "the time is past for hesitation and delay by those who are contemplating building in Las Vegas. Already the pinch of insufficient housing is being felt.

As acute as the housing shortage might have been we can only guesstimate at the effects this condition had on both local BlacksandthosenewcomerswhowerealsoBlack. Wehaveseen that the Black population of the county, who resided in the city, were pretty much restricted to the area adjacent to the red light district. As more Blacks arrived in Vegas, they would obviously glut block seventeen or reside in areas away from the city. ThereweresomeBlackswhowerefarmers/rancherswho

did indeed live away from the city. This feat was accomplish­ able through homesteading. As early as 1870 there had been a Black rancher named John Howell who was part owner of one of
the two ranches in southern Nevada.The Age reports a gathering

of approximately "200 prominent colored people...at the Mitchell

51

ranch south of town.

Every Black person in Clark County was

19.

not necessarily hemmed in on "block 17". Housing did remain a problem and as more people came the problem intensified.
The few hotels here such as the Overland, the Nevada and the Gateway Auto Court, bacause of their locations, did not rent roomstoBlacks. Thesehomeless,roomlessroverswerevaga­ bonds who were on the run constantly from the local authorities who were willing to resort to the use of chain gangs in ridding

52

the "city of undesirables."
colored" who "was arrested on complaint of Clay H. Williams, UnionPacificOfficer. Carterisallegedtohavebeentres-

. . .,53 spassing on railroad property without permission. Carter

was released on $250 bond pending his hearing. This is an exact script of what peonage is all about.

Accomodations for Blacks took a major setback when the presence of the "Red Light District" became tangent to the respectfulcommunity. Whenithadbeeninitiallyplacedin

"Block 16" it was far away from the respectful who did not mind partaking of its profits but who did not wish to rub elbows.
As the city grew, respectability and sources of wealth grew

closer together. C. P. Sguires had occassion to write that

"The Redlight District should retire to a more secluded spot

awayfromtheheartofthecity. Itshouldberetiringin

demeanor and not flaunt itself in the face of the community."54

Thedistrictwasforcedtomove. Constructionofthenewred light district was underway by the following week. 5 This change

affected Blacks living in the adjacent block 17. As current

One such victim was "Allen Carter,

20.

housing shortages worsened, Blacks were finding that not only was there no new housing being provided but that even existing housing was eroding away.

By the time the Boulder Dam Project got underway in 1931,

there were millions of unemployed people in the United States

and this figure would continue to increase. Many of those without

work followed up the numeroud leads of and rumors of work.

When Congress appropriated funds for work on the dam, a rush

toNevadabegan. Asearlyasayearandahalfbeforethere
had been letters of inquiry about jobs on the Dam.56 From then until

the culmination of the work there is a record of at least 42,000 letters of application being received.5?

reports the beginning of the deluge of aspiring workers and continued to stress the shortage of housing. People

built shelter of whatever materials they could find. All in all there was created "A pitiful and pathetic sight.” 6 People

slept in and under cars, crates or whatever was handy. Most hadlittleornomoneyanddeprivationwasprevalent. Squires

suggested establishing a local welfare system for those who needed it and a chain gang for undesirables.6^ He writes that

hundreds were just "waiting at the Colorado River for something in the nature of work to turn up." 2 The Black perspective

worker had to deal with all of this and more. Not only did
he have to be worried about finding a vacant room but he had
to be equally concerned with whether or not it was available toBlacks. ThiswasacommonfearthroughouttheUnitedStates.

21.

The circumstances of white prospective workers were not ideal but were better and then improved considerably when the Six Companies and the Federal government provided low cost housing near the dam site for workers there. "Boulder City cost the government $1,135,000 and the Six Companies $780,000 for a total

of almost $2,000,000. This expenditure was made to insure the

maximum of comfort for the workers who were to be employed on the project and the establishment of this model town."65 As

the completion time neared, those people who were living in im­ provised tent-houses and shacks in the gulleys and washes were informed that they would be required to vacate those areas beforeAprilfirst. BoulderCityofficiallyopenedonApril15 with the opening of the Post Office.64 Since Blacks were not to be among the early workers at the dam, neither would they be

among the early residents of Boulder City. Boulder City re­ mained all white until Al Brown, a local Las Vegas Black entre-

prenuer was permitted to operate a shoeshine stand in the recreation hall.65 The next Black to appear on the reservation was

one half of a duo who inadvertently arrived there while under

the influence. Their stay was short lived as they were chased

. 66 off by local security.

Local labor groups were, of course, concerned about job

protection. Since all crafts in the city were unionized this

afforded them some protection. They sought to add another

hiring restriction by urging that employees be "bona fide" citizens of Nevada.67 The contract would bring about major

labor changes in the Las Vegas area: not only would it create thousands of new jobs, but it would also foster acute competition

22.

for those jobs. A set of rather shaky employment circumstances already existed. Because of the shortage of jobs and the intense competition for those that were available, tension and strain were evident on the local labor scene almost from the very beginning. The following petition for protection of local

labor was not unusual.
Regarding employment of local labor for the building work the petitions which have been circulated by local laboring men asking the school board to do what it could to see that local labor was used as much as possible was turned over by the board to Mr. Sorenson, of the contractors, Ryberg and Sorenson...

He stated his company intends as far as possible to

hire local labor.
Thus, the guestion of local versus outside labor remained a problem. In addition, a portion of the local labor market was not even considered: the Black residents of Bas Vegas. They werenotunionmembersinaunionorientedtown. Whenthebids for local construction projects and for the supportive and preliminary work for the dam were let numerous new jobs were

created.6?/ The construction of the road from Las Vegas to the dam site had employed 400 men. This added to the number of men who worked in bringing power lines from southern California, the railroad spur from. Las Vegas to Boulder City and on to the dam, the construction of Boulder City and the numerous other

supportive jobs gives us an estimation of the number of jobs

23.

created by the Dam Project and the number of opportunities denied Blacks. The response to this exclusion was the founding of the "Colored Citizens Labor and Protective Association of LasVegas". Throughthisorganizationhelpwassoughtthrough the NAACP. Leland Hawkins was sent to see what could be done to gam better treatment for Blacks by the Six Companies,71
No changes were seen. The following month at an open meeting in which Blacks discussed their plight, the following was reported by a local newspaper:

Specific instances were cited by various speakers in

which building programs and construction work was under

progress with no Negro labor whatsoever. It was

charged that on some of these jobs there were foreigners

working while Negro American citizens were denied

i x. 72 employment.

It was charged that while Blacks were expected to fulfill their

responsibilities as citizens of the United States, their rights

as citizens were ignored and not protected. Just as white

Americans had, with the Spanish-American War and World War I,

answered the "bell", the same was true for Blacks. "When the

call to arms came in the Great War our government called for

American citizens, regardless of color. There are many ex-

servicemen among the local Negro settlement. Many of them are unable to obtain work."'3

As preparations got underway for the actual construction of the dam, the condition of local Blacks worsened. By the end
of November, 1931, there had been 3800 letters of response

24,

written to job seekers, and the numbers of arrivals were increasingdaily. Theinfluxofnewcomerstothearealessened Black chances of employment. This was the case bacause white newcomers were given preference for jobs over Blacks, The floodofworkersalarmedbothlocalBlacksandwhites. They feared that the near certainty of their chances for employ­ ment were being diminished. While it is true that certain restrictions had been placed in determining who would be eligible for employment, particularly on the dam project,

which in practice were often circumvented. For example, the Attorney General had ruled that any citizen who had resided six months in the state of Nevada, thirty days in any county and ten days in any precinct, was entitled to consideration as a

75

resident for public works and highway projects.
The Six Companies did not feel obligated to function with

any limitations on who would be hired, except for the restriction

76 . . ,
on Mongolians. Following an investigation in whicn cnarges

that Clark County residents were being denied jobs, a report was filed by T. L. Wilcox, one of the investigators:

With reference to men employed on Boulder Dam, the Six Companies are not required by contract or special provision to regard local preference, but can hire citizens of the United States from any

77 state providing veterans are given preference..

In spite of any alleged protective devices, local Blacks receivednobenefits. Theearlystagesofthedamconstruction

25.

centered around the diversion of the waters of the Colorado River through man-made tunnels.?8 The number of workers

utilized on this alone would suggest that there would have been more than enough jobs for local laborers. The newspapers

79
work on the tunnels alone.80 This involved some blasting, but

primarilyitwasataskofexcavation. Commonlaborerswere used extensively. Only minimal skills were required. Indeed, there was no sizeable work force in the United States with experience at building dams. Mr. Joe Kine, a long-time resident of Boulder City, had this to say about his background in construction before coming to Nevada:

IcametoNevadain1931fromMissouri. Iwas looking for work just like everybody else. At that time people were living in tents out here at the dam. Iwentoutthereandwenttowork. Ihadnever
done this kind of work before. From what I could seenobodyhad. Wejustlearnedaswewentalong. When I started off they were still digging the tunnels. I worked there for a while. After that
I became a high scaler and that's what I did until

81 I retired in 1974.

The "Colored Citizens Labor and Protective Association of Las Vegas" which had been founded on May 5, 1931, had met with no success in getting jobs for Blacks on the project. Their lack of experience would not have been a factor—the color of

reported that there were between 1,139

and 1,350 men now at

26.

their skin neutralized their chance, O. B. Allbritton, one of the membership, in a letter written to the Las Vegas Age stated that "...many colored over sea soldiers and citizens have applied in person, with their discharge papers, for work on the Hoover Dam Project..." All of these had been denied. He goes on to say that in each and every instance "The answers were: We have no provisions, I don’t know. We now appeal to the just and fairminded citizens.,..First to the Las Vegans,

83 to the various Congressmen, and to the press, for assistance.”

None of those appealed to responded. Two weeks later a second letterfromtheAssociationwaspublished. Itspurposewas
to define to the community what its objectives were and the charcterofitsmembership. Thiswaswrittenbyyetanother

84

member of the organization, J. P. Liddell.

Two weeks later

an article carried by that same sheet gave a telling description

oftheworkforce. Itstatedthat"WhentheHooverDamhas

been completed, an average number of nearly 4,000 employees will

have rolled up the stupendous number of 71,500,000 man-days

worked by the typical dam worker of 37 years of age, white,

American born, and representing every state in the union.

Arthur McCants, an officer of the Association, in a news item,

made an appeal to construction companies and other businesses

to give employment to Blacks.®^ As more workers were hired the

extent of discrimination at the dam site increased.
The NAACP had not given up its efforts to aid Blacks in

securing jobs at the dam site. William Pickins, Field Secretary

27.

of the Association had made a follow-up appearance in Las Vegas. His visit to Las Vegas involved, once again, an open meeting
in which there were influential whites in attendance—Nye Wilson, Mayor Ernie Cragin and Leonard Blood. Pickins’ address extoled the contributions Blacks had made in the historical development of the United States.Once again the thrust of the meeting was to indicate to white Las Vegans that Blacks were citizens

of the countryand the community. Their pleas, as usual, fell ondeafears. ThehabitofexcludingBlacksfromeconomicad­ vancement did not seem to be of concern of any but Blacks.
Rather than looking for reasons to hire Blacks, reasons
justifying their not being hired were developed in abundance.
The reason that was most used and easiest to prove was that Blacks didnothavetheexperience. JoeKinehasalreadypointedout how important experience was. Mr. Morgan Sweeney had worked

as a gaffer for RKO in Hollywood before coming to work at the dam. Whilehewasnotdirectlyinvolvedintheactualconstruc­

tion work, his presence does indicate that there were other kinds of jobs to be had.® W. A. Bechtel, President of

the Six Companies, gives a classic example of the misuse of experience as a "cop out". In giving an explanation for
the absence of Blacks on the project, he stated that "he
had never heard of any refusal to employ colored people and that he would take the matter up immediately on his return to Boulder City, and see that provision was made for their em­ ployment on the work when and if they had the necessary ex-

28.

perience."89 On the basis of the evidence, three conclusions may be suggested: (1) Blacks were required to have experience and whites were not; (2) Mr. Bechtel was either not cognizant of the absence of Blacks from the work force, or it did not matter to him; and (3) Affirmative action of any sort did not exist at that time. It is clear that in order for the rights of Blacks to be protected, safeguards beyond those for whites were necessary. At the meeting between representatives of the NAACP, the CCLPA, Six Companies, Senator Tasker L. Oddie and

Secretary Wilbur of the Department of the Interior this was addressed and it was agreed that there would be "no further discrimination

90

against the employment of Colored labor on the Hoover Dam.
It was finally admitted that discrimination had been taking place in the hiring practices. Walter White, Executive Secretary of NAACP,
in writing to Arthur McCrants, the President of the local chapter
of the NAACP, said that he had been notified by Mr. Ray Lyman
Wilbur of the Interior department that "When additions to the
force are made the company will arrange to give eirployment to
Negro labor.Almost as soon as this occured, the local government advertised for laborers for a sewer project. A new requirement

92
was attached—prospective workers had to be property owners. One

step forward and one step backwards.
Local whites had gained employment protection through the

strength of their organizations and unions. Blacks were on the verge of becoming involved in employment through their estab­ lishmentofself-helporganizations. TheCCLPAhadbeenfounded

29.

in 1931 by McCrants, Allbritton, Simpson and Liddell as officers, the NAACP had begun in 1932 with Arthur McCrants as President of

93

the local chapter.
obtain employment opportunities for Blacks. As a result of their efforts more and more attention was brought to bear on this condition.

"When additions to the force are made..,’— additions were constantlybeingmade. Duringthefirstyearofconstructionon the dam project, thousands of men had been employed. There was a constant turnover in the labor force. Thousands of different men appeared on the roster of workers. An example of the high rate of change may be shown by reference to just one month:

"During the first fifteen days of December the labor turnover averaged thirteen per day...There were three-hundred thirty-

94

nine men hired during this period."
Black, and that trend generally continued throughout the con­ struction of the dam.

Quite a bit of confusion existed in the entire hiring process. PreferencewastobegiventoNevadaresidentswho were also veterans, but newcomers to the area quickly fulfilled residency requirements. The local Chamber of Commerce became

involvedinaprogramofidentification. Itstatedthatit
"is not registering men who have lived here less than one year," and that it had "checked the references and approved of 138

These two organizations were designed to

white men and 37 colored men who have been residents a year and longer. According to this tabulation there were a total of 175 men who

,.95

None of those hired were

30.

were bona fide residents that had been checked. Whether the Chamber's report was exhaustive or all-inclusive is not very important. What is important is the fact that such a small number of Blacks should not have presented much of a problem as far as employment is concerned.

Blackswerekeptontheoutside. Theyhadtomakea

living and the only way that was left to do this was by doing

menial jobs, when possible, or by involvement in illegal

activities. The Review Journal reports of these kinds of

events while totally ignoring the efforts of the CCLPA and the

NAACP to obtain jobs for Blacks. From "one-armed" holdup

9697 98
artists to bootleggers to strong-armed to charity re­

cipients^ Blacks ran the gamut. None of that small number,

however, were hired on the dam project.
With over 4000 workers needed, it would appear that the

37 Blacks who qualified would have had at least some represen­

tationintheworkforceattheworksite. Butthehiring

practices of the local office of the Nevada Office of Labor

inLasVegasmustbeconsidered. EverybodyexceptBlacks

seemtohavehadinput. ThelocalRedCrosshadsetthemselves

up as having something to say of the needs of aspiring workers.

Its Executive Secretary states that they had "endeavored to

refer to you only those men who are heads of families and who
seem fit io work. "^0 Apparently the Red Cross did not recognize

the existence of Black families. Mr. Leonard Blood, Deputy Director of the state office, suggested that Blacks should not

31.

be hired on the project because their presence would cause tension

101
would be "difficulties of housing and feeding 'colored labor,’

102 and the cost of providing separate facilities for them.,."

This statement of the need for segregated facilities for Black workers was but a mirror of the realities of segregation in Nevada. BoulderCitybuiltwithfederalfundstohousedam workers,wasasegregatedcommunity. Someportionofthose

fundswasaresultoftaxespaidbyBlackAmericans. One reputable Boulder City resident who worked initially as a checker in the cafeteria at Boulder City could "after a while match a man’s face with a badge number."103 He did not ever recall

104 seeing a Black person eating in that cafeteria.

The complaints which were constantly being lodged against the Six Companies by local white laborers and by Blacks created an untenable situation with the local labor office. Everyone in a position of authority, it seems, attempted to shift the responsibility to someone else. In the meantime,

those who were unemployed bacause of discrimination were "doing without."

Approximately a month after the June meeting where the promise was made to end discrimination on the project the first

105

10 Blacks were hired at the Hoover Dam.
of a workforce in excess of four thousand is a miniscule per­ centage, but the impression created in the newspapers seem to have suggested something quite to the contrary.

with the white workers.

In addition to this, he thought there

Ten Blacks out

32,

The Colored people of Las Vegas have made a per­

sistent campaign to obtain the just treatment in this

matter which the Constitution of the United States

guarantees to them. When the matter finally came

to the attention of the Secretary of the Interior

through the National BarAssociation measures were taken

to assure the Colored people of their just proportion

of the work on this project. It is gratifying,

not alone to the people of African descent, but to

all lovers of fair play that this question of Negro

labor on Hoover Dam has been settled with justice

,-. 106 and fairness.

By the time these first ten Blacks had been hired on the project, their number who met the basic requirements for employ­ ment greatly exceeded the initial figure of thirty-seven.
The hiring of ten Blacks out of a 4000 plus work force was anything but fair. It had not been the National Bar Association but the National Association for the Advancement of Colored

People. Those first ten were not received with open arms. It is said that "NIG" the dog mascot was born about March, 1932

.

and that he wandered onto the dam site as a small pup.

1Q7
His

arrival would have approximated that of the first Black workers.

Phil Lawson who arrived at the Dam site in 1931 recalls that

the dog was innitially called "nigger" bacause it was so black. This was later shortened to "nig". 08 The perception of Blacks

hadbeenbadpriortotheirbeinghiredtotheproject. Once they reported for work this perception deteriorated. As a

33.

continuing effort to protect the interest of local Blacks and because of the seemingly universality of segregation in all

109 local organizations Black veterans organized VFW Post 2668.

The local white VFW Post 1753 did not admit Black veterans to membership. This, along with the NAACP, the CCLPA continued

to carry on the fight for additional Hobs for Blacks. As

of September the local labor office reported that "at the present time twenty-five..."110 Blacks were working on the project.

Just as was the case in the military, Blacks worked as

111 segregatedcrews. CharlieRosewasxnchargeofsuchacrew.

Blacks worked by themselves, lived by themselves and ate by themselves. Since there had been no provxsions made for their living at Boulder City they lived away from Boulder City. ItwasanongoingbattleforBlackworkers. Turnoverscontinued but repolacements were usually white unless one of those tiring of the canyon’s heat happened to be a member of a Black

gang.
Conditions still had not really improved nationwide as

far as jobs go. They continued to come to Las Vegas. The payroll continued to increase until it reached its peak of

5,251. The diversion tunnels which had been begun xn June 113

of 1931 were completed in March of 1933.

The rate of in­

crease of Black workers was very slow even though the local

114 Labor Office "supposedly worked in harmony" with the CCLPA.

With the river running through the mountain instead of the canyon, preparations were made for erecting the structure.

34.

From the time that bed rock was touched it took but two years of twenty-four hours per day work to complete the project. Prentiss Walker was among those who arrived here in 1933

lookingforwork. Hedidnotfarewellinsecuringemployment

and as a result of the constant denials he ultimately left

• 115 and went to Stocton, California.

In later months and years, the number of Blacks allowed to work on the project fluctuated constantly. "By October of 1933, a report by Mead revealed that 65 had been hired, mostly for road work.Now that the diversion tunnels were com­ pleted the task of preparing the river-bed for the pouring of

concretehadtobemet. Thecenturiesofsiltwhichhad accumulated had to be removed. "Muck" was the adjective used
to describe it. Perhaps the order which was given was to "get the muck out". Once again the major work to be done was that
of common labor. At its technical peak in 1932, there were
but 116 involved in engineering, warehouse and office operations.

There were 49 doing electrical work and 309 in the mechanical

. 117 division.

The Boulder City Journal in its "Boys of Boulder Dam,” "Who's Who in Boulder City," and "Bunkhouse Bunk" have given us

background of the men who helped build the Boulder Dam.
Most were veterans. When they arrived they had been machine gunners, pilots, sailors, supply depot workers, artillery

118

sargeants, divers and the like.
had been in World War I the first time in which trench warfare

(Perhaps the fact that they

35.

was used and as. a result they learned to use the shovel with finesse, made them doubly qualified for the work of constructing a dam since half of the task was digging out and the other
half was filling in) By 1934 they had become the major source of supply of experienced dam workers in the United States.
The Boulder Dam Project opened the gate to numerous other re­ clamationprojects. Therewere4000menworkingalonga
250 mile desert front building an aquaduct to the Imperial

119

Valley.
year of work on the Parker Dam.120 Because of the construction

of the Boulder Dam, work which involved the construction of the All-American canal from the Colorado River to the Imperial Valley, Davis Dam, the 300 mile aquaduct from the Havasu disilting station to San Diego, Headgate River Dam, Imperial Dam, Roosevelt Dam and numerous other reclamation projects in

the great American southwest, got underway. All of these projects brought about not only jobs at a time when there
was a dire need for jobs, but they also made possible the pro­ duction of food, electrical power, and the development of some of the richest land in the world—the Imperial and Coachella Valleys.

ProgressontheBoulderDamwasaheadofschedule. It

had been estimated that the work would be completed in December of 1937.121 "Since June 1933, more than 1,600,000

cubic yards of cement"122 had been poured. Almost a year later ithadreachedhalfofitsfinalheightof732feet. Itwas

$2,000,000 had been appropriated for the first

_

36.

becoming more and more apparent that soon the work on the dam wouldbecompletedandthenumberofjobswoulddecrease. In a manner of speaking, Arthur Davis, in 1914, became the first employee on the dam when he submitted a proposal of a plan for

ino

damming the Colorado.

The work force grew to 1300 by August

of 1931, 4200 by April of 1932 and peaked out at 5,251 in

124
Julyof1934. Byspringofthisyeartherewereonly11Blacks

, 125 on the work force.

The final week of June marked the official opening of

bids for the Grand Coulee Dam and Powerhouse in Spokane, Wash­

ington. Justashadbeenthecasein1930-31withtheBoulder

Dam, there was a sudden influx of out-of-staters who rushed

toSpokaneinsearchofwork. Somanypeoplewenttherefrom

the Boulder Project that it finally prompted Mrs, H. E, Hansen to order all who came from Boulder to return home.^® This

movement of workers who sought to get in on a brand new pro­ ject which would give them employment of a longer duration
and in a much more mild climate did affect the turnover rate
of workers at the Boulder Project. The fact that this occurred at a time when the project had in its employ the peak number

of workers would suggest that there would be even more possible openingsforBlacks. Contrarily,asthenumberofworkers increased, the number of job opportunities expanded, the
number of Blacks decreased.

Because of the establishment.of the CCLPA, the NAACP and a VFW Post, Blacks in Clark County became organized. Their

37,

numbers were small but they functioned as a unit and they had support from the National office of the NAACP. The change in the manner in which they were perceived by local whites can
be seen in the fact that during the campaign for Mayor of the City of Las Vegas in 1935, the winning candidate, Leonard Arnett, appealed to local Black organizations for their support. The Las Vegas Age reports that his request for support was

127

answered.
jobs, political recognition and other Constitutional rights.

Ray Lyman Wilber had predicted in 1932 that "Hoover Dam will create a unique tourists' Mecca."128 His prediction had come

true even before the dam was completed. The reports of visitors

Blacks were actively involved in the fight for

129

130

for 1934 range between 250,000
needed accomodations. These, hotels, restaurants, and other services, brought about new jobs— for which Blacks would once again have to fight to get.

Blacks continued their fight for jobs on the project throughoutthedurationoftheconstructionofthedam, Cfrice the dust had settled and all concerned were convinced that they had done enough— the token gestures had been made— Blacks were once again forgotten. In this respect, then, even the New Deal

itself, as it operated in Nevada on the Boulder Dam Project, proved to be the same "old deal" for Blacks, It is ironic that even on a project located the the Black Canyon, Blacks were not welcome..

and 365,000.

These tourists

38.

NOTES:

1. James Hulse, The Nevada Adventure (Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1969), p. 228.

2. U. S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 16th Census of the United States 1940, Part 4, p. 722.

3. James G. Scrugham, ed., Nevada: A Narrative of The Conquest of A Frontier Land, Vol. I, (N.Y.: The American Historical Society, Inc., 1935) p. 391.

4. The Story of Hoover Dam (Washington, D. C., U. S. Government Printing, 1976), p. 49.

5.

6.

7. 8. 9.

10.

11.

12. 13. 14.

15.

16.

Bernard Frank, Water, Land and People, (N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf Co., 1950), p. 11.

Ray Lyman Wilbur and Northcutt Ely, The Hoover Dam
Power and Water Contracts and Related Data, (Washington, D. C., U. S. Government Printing Office, 1933), p. 5.

Wilbur, lo. cit., p. 6. Scrugham, lo. cit., p. 507. ibid, p. 508

Elmer Rusco, Good Time Coming: Blacks Nineteenth Century Nevada, (Westport. Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1975),
p. 4.
Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins, Life Among the Paiutes, (Bishop California: Chalfant Press, Inc. 1969), p. 8.

Elmer Rusco, lo. cit., p. 21. ibid, pp. 136-137.

For examples refer to Thompson and West’s History of Nevada (Berkeley: Howell-North, 1958), Mexicans
p.p. 420,522,29 and 271, Chinese p.p. 429,230,438,552, and 558.

Thomas Sowell, Race and Economy, (N.Y.: David McKay Co. Inc., 1975), p. 162.

For examples see the Las Vegas Age: November 25, 1905 "Every Race Has Its Flag But the Coon", April 20, 1907 "Fatal Race Riot", November 21, 1908 "Chinese Seek Restitution", January 14, 1910 "Trailing Queho",

39,

July 31, 1909 "Indian Henry Murdered", November 20, 1909 "ViciousAssault By White Man on Mexican", November 23, 1909

"Willie Boy Is Dead In San Bernardino Mountains", January 14, 1910 "Establishing Desert Nogro Colony".

17. Walter Bracken to H. I. Bettis , March 21, 1911. Union Pacific File, Special Collections, UNLV library,

18. Las Vegas Age, November 21, 1909, Biloxi, Mississippi, "Mob of White Men Lynch Negro Charged with assault on
a White Girl". November 20, 1909 Cairo, Ill., "In­ furiatedMobLynchesNegroandWhiteMan". November20, 1909 Los Angeles, "Raid Japanese Sections in California Towns". September 28, 1906 Atlanta, Ga., "Race Riot

In Atlanta". October 20, 1906 Editorial, "Mob Law Rampant in the South".

19. John C. Hicks, Republican Ascendancy, (N.Y.: 1960), p. 95.

20. Las Vegas Age, February 20, 1926, p. 1.

21. See Robert A. Nylen, "When The Klan Rode On Virginia Street," Washoe Rambler (Reno, Nevada), Winter, 1977, p. 75-78.

22. Las Vegas Age, May 17, 1919, p. 4.

23. Louis Ferman, Negroes And Jobs (Ann Arbor, 1968), p. 11.

24. O. C. Cox, Caste, Class, and Race (N.Y.: Doubleday, 1948), p. 3931

25. Frederick Lewis Allen, The Big Change; 1900-1950, (N.Y.: Vantam Books, 1965), p. 115.

26. John Hope Franklin, From Slavery To Freedom, (N.Y.: Vintage Books, 1969), p. 493.

27. Charles F. Outland, Man Made Disaster: The Story of
St. Francis Dam, (Glendale, California: Arthur H. Clark Co., 1963), p. 211.

28. David A. Shannon, Between the Wars, (Boston, 1965),
91, 193-194. See Gilbert Osofsky, Harlem; The Making of A Ghetto, (N.Y.: 1965), Part III, "Harlem Slum"..

40.

29. Robert Sobel, Herbert Hoover At The Onset of The Great Depression 1929-1930 (N.Y.: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1975), pp. 102-103.

30. William E. Leuchtenburg, The Perils of Prosperity (Chicago, 1958), 252; Shannon, lo. cit., p. 194.

31. Herbert Hoover, The Memoirs of Herbert Hoover: The Great Depression, 1929-1941 (N.Y.: 1952), p. 448.

32. Leuchtenburg, 251-254; Shannon, 193-194.

33. Pete Daniel, The Shadow of Slavery, (N.Y.: Oxford University Press, 1972), p. 151.

34. Daniel, lo. cit., p. 154

35. Arthur Link and William Catton, American Epoch, 3rd. ed. (New York, 1967), pp. 382-383.

36. Elliott Rosen, Hoover, Roosevelt, and the Brains Trust, (NewYork, 1977), p. 46.

37. Joan H. Wilson, Herbert Hoover: Forgotten Progressive (Boxton, 1975), p. 136.

38. ibid, p. 129.

39. E. E. Robinson, Herbert Hoover: President of the United States, (Stanford, California, 1975) , pp. 146-147.

40. Walter White, A Man Called White, (N.Y.: 1948), p. 104. 41. ibid, pp. 114-115.
42. Las Vegas Evening Review, January 1, 1930, p. 4.
43. ibid, p. 4.

44. ibid, p. 8.
45. ibid, p. 8.
46. Las Vegas Age, November 2, 1930, p. 2.

47. See following for local reaction to Arizona stand against the final approval of the Project Compact.
Las Vegas Age, January 8, 1931, p. 1.
Las Vegas Age, January 13, 1931, p. 1.

Las Vegas age, January 20, 1931, p. 1. Las Vegas Age, March 3, 1931, p. 6.
Las Vegas Age, November 29, 1935, p. 4.

41.

48. Las Vegas Age, November 4, 1930, p. 2.

49. Las Vegas Age, September 27, 1930, p. 2.

50. West Las Vegas At The Crossroads, p. 56, Special Collections, UNLV.

51. Las Vegas Age, October 30, 1928, p. 1. 52. Las Vegas Age, January 1, 1931, p. 1. 53. Las Vegas Age, April 2, 1931, p. 1.

54. Las Vegas Age, January 3, 1931, p. 2. The discussion of the removal of Block 16 had gone on for quite some time. Arguments in favor of the removal can be seen
as early as a year before. Review Journal, January 30, 1930, p. 1, and Review Journal, January 31, 1930, p. 1, and Review Journal, February 13, 1930, p. 1.

55. Las Vegas Age, January 8, 1931, p. 2.

56. Las Vegas Age, January 2, 1930, p. 2.

57. Paul L. Kleinsorge, The Boulder Canyon Project, (Palo Alto, CA, Stanford University Press, 1941), p. 301.

58. Las Vegas Age, January 1, 1931, p. 1. 59. ibid, January 3, 1931, p. 2.
60. Las Vegas Age, February 10, 1931, p. 1. 61. ibid, February 14, 1931, p. 2.

62. ibid, p. 1.

63. Organization, Operation of U. S. Department of Labor Employment Office, Blood File, Special Collections, UNLV.

64. Las Vegas Evening Review, April 14, 1931, p. 2. 65. ibid, February 19, 1932, p. 3.
66. Review Journal, April 14, 1932, p. 4.

67. Telegram, H. C. Gardett to Leonard Blood, July 9, 1931, 590-50 NL-FX, Los Angeles, California, Blood File, Special Collections, UNLV.

42.

68. Las Vegas Age, January 5, 1930, p. 3.
69. Las Vegas Age, January 20, 1931, p. 1 and 3. 70. Las Vegas Age, September 11, 1930, p. 1.

71. ibid, November 18, 1931, p. 1.

72. Las Vegas Age, December 19, 1931, p. 3.

73. ibid
    The Review Journal did not appear to be cognizant
    of the employment realities of Blacks, It reports on New Years Day of 1932 that "while there is not definite information available, it is probable that 85 per cent of the REAL residents of Las Vegas, those who were citizens of the community before the Hoover Dam employment hysteria began, are happily engaged in the business of making a living and doing a good job of it."

74. Review Journal, November 17, 1931, p. 4.

75.

76.

77. 78. 79. 80.

81.

82. 83. 84. 85. 86.

"Investigation Regarding Discrimination Against Clark County Residents", Blood to Royal, Blood File, Special Collections, UNLV.

Kleinsorge, p. 204. "Open Shop", New Republic, Vol. 67, June 24, 1931, p. 147.

Investigation Regarding Discrimination, Blood File. Las Vegas Age, December 20, 1931, p. 5.

Las Vegas Age, December 20, 1931, p. 5.

TheEveningReviewJournalreportedfiguresof1,350 January 8, 1932, p. 4.

Interview with Mr. Joe Kine, retired high scaler, December 2, 1975, Boulder City, Nevada.

Las Vegas Age, January 7, 1932, p. 2. ibid.
Las Vegas Age, January 20, 1932, p, 2. ibid, February 3, 1932, p. 8.

ibid, February 13, 1932, p. 2.

43.

87. Las Vegas Age, May 11, 1932, p. 2. See also interview with Mr. J. David Hoggard, Executive Director of the Economic Opportunity Board in West Las Vegas At The Crossroads, p. 39.

The Review Journal, April 15, 1932, p. 5., pointed out that the NAACP was disenchanted with Hoover’s lack of interest in providing for the employment on the dam project. He states that "If we’re not good enough to work on the Boulder Dam project we’re not good enough
to vote for President Hoover." He reminded the audience that there were twelve million Blacks in the United States and just as they had prevented the seating of Judge Parker to the Supreme Court so too could they preventthere-seatingofHerbertHoover. Threedays

later, A. E. Cahlan in his daily column "From Where I
Sit" says in effect that he could understand the demands of veterans. (He obviously did not recognize Blacks
as being veterans.). That he had several hundred thousand buddies who along with their families, have had to do without shoes, clothing or shelter. The things asked
for by Pickins were viewed as the demands of "special interest groups," and militant minorities. April 18, 1932 p. 4.

88. Interview with Mr. Morgan Sweeney, retired supervisor, Boulder Dam Project, December 2, 1975, Boulder City, Nevada.

89. Las Vegas Age, June 18, 1932, p. 4. 90. ibid

91. ibid

92. Evening Review Journal, June 17, 1932, p. 1.

93. West Las Vegas At The Crossroads, p. 41, Special Col­ lections, UNLV.

94. Las Vegas Age, December 20, 1931, p. 5, 95. ibid, August 23, 1932, p. 1.

96. Review Journal, January 12, 1932, p. 6,
97. ibid, January 25, 1932, p. 3, June 28, 1932, p. 2. 98. ibid, January 25, 1932, p. 5.
99. ibid, June 22, 1932, p. 1.

44.

100.

101. 102.

103. 104. 105. 106. 107. 108. 109. 110.

Deborah B. Pentz to Leonard T. Blood, August 22, 1932, Blood File, Special Collections, UNLV.

Blood File, Special Collections, UNLV.

’’Elwood Mead, Irrigation Engineer and Social Planner,” Unpublished Dissertation by James Kluger, University of Arizona, 1970, p. 205.

Morgan Sweeney Interview.

ibid.

Las Vegas Age, July 8, 1932, p. 4.

ibid.

Review Journal, March 27, 1979, p.

Boulder City News, May 3, 1979, p.

Las Vegas Age, August 18, 1932, p.

Blood to Royal, September 3, 1932, Collections, UNLV.

Boulder City News, May 3, 1979, p.

Kleinsorge, p. 301. 113. Wilbur, p. 79.

IB.
8.
1.
Blood File, Special

8.

111. 112.

114. Royal to Betty Hanson, February 20, 1930, Blood File, Special Collections, UNLV.

115. Interview with Mr. Prentiss Walker, Minister of local church, March 12, 1976, North Las Vegas.

116. Kluger, lo. cit.

117. Review Journal, March 11, 1932, p. 1.

118. The reference to the lack of experience of the workers is borne out in several series which appeared in the Las Vegas Evening Review from its Boulder City Journal page. Elton Garrett’s "The Boys of Boulder Dam," "Who’s Who in Boulder City,” "Bunkhouse Bunk" by Biz. These did not appear with any regularity but can be found intermut- tingly through 1932 - the following are some examples - February 6, 1932, February 20, 1932, Fanuary 5, 1932, February 8, 1932, February 28, 1932.

45.

119. Las Vegas Age, March 9, 1934, p. 17,

120. ibid

121. Review Journal, January 15, 1932, p.

122. Las Vegas Age, April 27, 1934, p. 1.

123. Allen H. Cullen, Rivers In Harness (N. Y.: Chilton Books, 1962), p. 40.

124. Kleinsorge, lo. cit., p. 301.
125. Linger, lo. cit., p. 205.
126. Review Journal, July 2, 1934, p. 3.
127. Las Vegas Age, April 26, 1935, p. 12. 128. Review Journal, January 15, 1932, p. 1. 129. ibid, December 28, 1934, p. 1.

130. Las Vegas Age, May 31, 1935, p. 4.

46,