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I agree.Part of an interview of James Jones, Jr. conducted by Barbara Tabach, February 28, 2013 . Jones Jr. highlights his work opportunities and racism in 1959 Las Vegas. In the clip, Jones Jr. discusses his first job in Las Vegas, where he became ill after four hours, and his subsequent job at a neighborhood grocery store.
James Jones Jr. oral history interview, 2013 February 28. OH-00963. [Audio recording] Oral History Research Center, Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, N
English
So if you can go back and think about a nineteen-year-old moving from rural Louisiana to Las Vegas, what was Las Vegas like at that moment in time? Well, when I first got here I really didn't like it, I guess because I had never been away from home and I didn't like it. But then I love it now. Only thing, when I came here we couldn't go downtown; it was bad. Did you expect that you would not be— subjected to this racism? That's right, yes, when I first came, yes. Describe that to me. Talk to me about that era and racism. Well, racism: you couldn't go to the shows. Well, you could go there, but most of the people that worked on the Strip at that time, they were maids. They didn't have like busboys and things like that. Only thing they did was cleanup, maids and porters. Then they got so you could be busboys, they got to be dealers, things like that. Did you ever look for a job on the Strip yourself? I worked at the Blue Onion for about four hours and I got sick and didn't go back because I was in the kitchen and working, you know how you're washing dishes with the food, and it made me sick. I didn't go back. I got a job with Gilbert's and then after that I went to REECo. So that was much better. Right, much better. Who owned Gilbert's Grocery? That was a neighborhood grocery, I assume. Gilbert owned that, Mr. Gilbert. I remember him. He had polio and so he had to walk with crutches. He had the grocery store and a liquor store. So they were two separate entrances? Yes. Grocery on one side and liquor store across the street. Oh, okay. How busy were you? Describe a grocery store to me. The grocery store was big because mostly if they didn't go to Vegas Village, the big grocery store, it was the little neighborhood store and most of the people came there and do their shopping.