Oral history interview with Judith Lee Johnson Jones conducted by Claytee D. White on February 22, 2007 for the Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project. Johnson Jones discusses winning a contest that allowed her to be a showgirl at the Sands Hotel and Casino when she was seventeen, receiving a college degree in Houston, Texas, and performing in the Elvis movie “Viva Las Vegas.” She also talks about her twenty-nine-year career in education.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Louise Randall Lawler conducted by Claytee D. White on September 25, 2021 for African Americans in Las Vegas: a Collaborative Oral History Project.
Louise Randall Lawler discusses her early years in Las Vegas, her family history, and her experience as Rancho High School's first Black cheerleader. She talks about her cheer experience at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, her teaching career for the Clark County School District at Rancho High School and Valley High School, her time dancing with Redd Foxx, and her bartending career at the Imperial Palace Hotel and Casino.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Esther Langston conducted by Claytee D. White on February 22, 2005 for the UNLV @ 50 Oral History Project. In this interview, Langston provides an overview of her early life and career in social work. She describes how the women in her family are positive and empowering role models. Langston moves on to explain how she become a social worker over a period of many years. She states that a job experience that helped her gain the qualifications of a social worker was working as an office manager at the Nevada Test Site. She also mentions how she has had to work with conflicts such as racial inequalities.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Jane Greenspun Gale conducted by Barbara Tabach on January 31, 2018 and February 09, 2018 for the Southern Nevada Jewish Heritage Project. Gale recalls attending Las Vegas High School, desegregation of schools, and what is was like growing up in Las Vegas, Nevada in the 1960s. Gale then recalls the anti-war position taken by the
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Peter Michel conducted by Claytee D. White on March 10, 2021 for the Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project.
Peter Michel is Acting Director of University of Nevada, Las Vegas Lied Library's Special Collections and Archives. This interview was conducted in part for the 20th year celebration of Lied Library. He discusses the construction of Lied Library and his time working in Special Collections and Archives. Peter also talks of his early life, university studies, and professional career that led him to Las Vegas, along with his thoughts on what the future holds for UNLV's Special Collections and Archives.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Rick Peppers conducted by Claytee D. White on July 06, 2016 for the Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project. In the interview, Peppers describes his childhood in Exira, Iowa and moving to Blue Diamond, Nevada in 1962. He explains working in various positions at the Blue Diamond Mine to ensure employment stability. Peppers shares stories about how the mine company's ownership of Blue Diamond affected the town. After transitioning into security jobs, he explains working through the Teamsters Union at the Aladdin Hotel and Casino, and then working forty-six years at Caesars Palace Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Harvey Munford conducted by Claytee D. White on August 21, 2015 for the African Americans in Las Vegas: a Collaborative Oral History Project. Munford begins by discussing his career as a Nevada State Assemblyman and the Nevada legislative process. He then describes his early history, detailing his college education and athletic career as a basketball player for the University of Akron and later at Montana State University Billings. Munford also describes the discrimination he faced as an African American throughout his life particularly during the 1960s and 1970s, arriving in Las Vegas, Nevada in 1966, and his thirty-eight year career as a teacher in the Clark County School District.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Celese Rayford conducted by Phillip Walley on November 14, 2015 for the African Americans in Las Vegas: a Collaborative Oral History Project. In this interview, Rayford discusses her career as an educator in Las Vegas, Nevada. She begins by describing her upbringing in Las Vegas, the Westside community of Las Vegas, and attending Spellman College in Atlanta, Georgia. Rayford then discusses her involvement with Top Teens of America and how that program helps to prepare young girls for college. She continues, talking about the effectiveness of disciplinary action against students, her experiences from her first year of teaching, and headstart programs for students who live in poverty.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Gloria Dixon conducted by Claytee D. White on May 2, 2022 for the African Americans in Las Vegas: A Collaborative Oral History Project. In this interview, Dixon recalls her childhood growing up in Las Vegas, Nevada. Dixon attended St. Christopher and Bishop Gorman High School, and recalls her parents' involvement in the New Jerusalem Church. Dixon discusses writing grants to help with community education programs, and using her experience as a hospice nurse for the last thirty years to help communicate information about public health crises. Throughout the interview, Dixon shares information about the businesses in the Las Vegas Black community on Jackson Street.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Julio Lucchesi conducted by an unidentified interviewer on December 21, 2001. Luchessi discusses his decision to become an architect, as well as his desire to become an aviator. He reads extensively from his autobiography in progess, of his education, his time in the Army Air Corps during World War II, and his decision to move to Nevada. He also talks about the formation and development of the American Institute of Architecture (AIA) in Nevada, his efforts to change the exam process for new architects in the state, and the eleven-year struggle to establish a school of architecture at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Archival Collection