Oral history interview with Patty and Harry Todd conducted by Claytee D. White on May 28, 2024 for the Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project. In this interview, Patty Todd describes her childhood on the Westside of Las Vegas, and remembers a friendly community. She attended the Westside School and graduated from Rancho High School. Patty met her husband, Harry, at a Military Appreciation Ball on October 15, 1966. Harry Todd grew up in Pennsylvania and moved to Las Vegas, Nevada when he joined the Air Force. The two share memories of living on the Westside and growing up with the city in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Patty shares about her family's long history in Las Vegas, and at one point an earlier generation homesteaded property at the corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Flamingo where the Bellagio stands today. Digital audio available; no transcript available.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Elizebeth Dewey Russell conducted by Claytee D. White on March 23, 2024 for the African Americans in Las Vegas: a Collaborative Oral History Project. In this interview, Russell talks about her mother, Ruth Bradshaw Dewey, a white woman, who taught at the Westside School (1949-1955), saw Josephine Baker at the El Rancho in 1952, attended the opening night of the Moulin Rouge in 1955, and served as the secretary of the Las Vegas branch of the NAACP for several years. Russell describes living with her mother in the Mayfair deveopment just south of 17th Street at Charleston and graduating from Las Vegas High School. She recalls spending summers with her father, John Bradshaw, in Caliente, Nevada, where he worked as a mechanic for the Union Pacific Railroad.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Ethel Smith and Barbara Carter McCalister conducted by Claytee D. White on March 3, 2021 for African Americans in Las Vegas: a Collaborative Oral History Project. Barbara Carter and Ethel Smith grew up on the Westside in the 1950s, both born in the late 1940s. They attended the Westside School. Their memories of the city are colorful, vibrant, and clear. They loved school and excelled in the assigned work. After high school, before their chosen careers, both tried work as a maid and found the sexual harassment a real challenge. Their memories of entertainment, fun, customs, and business locations on Jackson Avenue and the surrounding Black business community, related on their walk down memory lane, provided good historical information. Barbara Carter entered banking at Valley Bank and Ethel Smith, the casino industry, at a time when the MOB ran Las Vegas. Their recollections remind us that businesses operated differently and these women were there to witness it. Subjects discussed include: Westside, Jackson Ave, MOB, La Concha Motel, Berkley Square, Valley Bank, Caesars Palace, Ash Resnick, Jackson Hotel.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Millicent Washington, Susan Nwogbe, Samuel Collins, and Tamara Collins-Golden conducted by Claytee D. White on April 10, 2021 for African Americans in Las Vegas: a Collaborative Oral History Project. These siblings, Millicent, Tamara, Susan, and Samuel grew up on the Westside and remember the fun of their young lives, schooling that was excellent, and a tight-knit family. Tamara and Susan attended Howard University because of a tour that Susan attended that took her to Black Colleges and Universities throughout the HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) system. Both sisters acquired patronage jobs through the Nevada Congressional delegation. The family owned property that may have been inappropriately acquired by the City of Las Vegas. Tamara, as did her grandmother, works for the Economic Opportunity Board with an office in the Westside School. They talk about school desegregation, businesses on Jackson Avenue, COVID-19, and family dynamics. Other subjects discussed include: Economic Development Board, Nevada Test Site, Howard University, School desegregation, Jackson Avenue businesses.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Pat Feaster conducted by Claytee D. White on July 1, 1996 for the African Americans in Las Vegas: a Collaborative Oral History Project. In this interview, Feaster relates how her mother made the decision to leave Fordyce, Arkansas for better economic opportunity and moved to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1942. She describes travelling across the country, living in a one-room structure in the Westside of Las Vegas, and attending the Westside School. She discusses her mother's employment at the Red Rooster Restaurant and then at the Algiers Hotel. She talks at length about her own educational journey after leaving school at fifteen, then returning for her GED and later, a college degree after the birth of her fifth child. She discusses how the decision to improve her education helped her develop a twenty-six year career at the Clark County Health District. She also discusses the Fordyce Club and many important personalities in Las Vegas' Black community.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Dr. Agnes Lockette conducted by Dennis McBride on March 25, 1996 for the Boulder City Library Oral History Project. In the interview, Lockette discusses her experiences teaching in the Clark County, Nevada School District (CCSD) and at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). Lockette begins by talking about studying at Albany State College in Albany, Georgia, moving around the United States due to her husband's military service, and finally settling in Boulder City, Nevada in 1953. She also discusses racial integration in CCSD and in her own classrooms at the Westside School (Las Vegas Grammar School) and C. T. Sewell Elementary School during the 1960s. Other subjects Lockette covers include the expansion of the Las Vegas, Nevada hotel and casino industries in the early 1950s, the increasing student population, teaching conditions, and other educators in Las Vegas including Mabel Hoggard and James Dickinson. Lastly, Lockette recalls her experiences with UNLV, community support and engagement for education, and working toward her master's and doctoral degrees in English.
Archival Collection