Eleanor Walker served as President of the Las Vegas, Nevada Chapter of the NAACP in the early 1970s. She has held several jobs throughout her lifetime, including ones at Pan American Airways, AT&T, and Caesars Palace. She was among the first black individuals to hold a position in many of the companies for which she worked, paving the way for future generations. Some of her most noteworthy work was with Operation Independence and the NAACP, as she played a role in many positive changes made for Westside Las Vegas and the African American community.

Jazz musician and restaurateur Gene Nakanishi is a second-generation native-born Las Vegan. In the 1920s, Gene's paternal grandfather worked on the Union Pacific railroad between what is now Zyzzx, California, and Las Vegas. After his oldest child died from lack of available medical care, the elder Nakanishi moved his family to Las Vegas and commuted to his work site. During WWII, when Gene's father was 17, the Nakanishi family was interned at the Heart Mountain War Relocation Center, near Cody, Wyoming.