Oral history interview with Pamela Jones Brown conducted by Claytee D. White on June 12, 2019 for the Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project. In this interview, Brown discusses her upbringing in Nashville, Tennessee and moving to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1968. She remembers her career as a school teacher, her employment for the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), and writing about the history of African Americans in the United States. Lastly, Brown talks about the research behind her publications, African Americans migrating to the western United States, and early Las Vegas history.
Asalee Harris was born in Fortune Fork, a little place outside of Tallulah, Louisiana, on the road to Vicksburg, Mississippi. A family of sharecroppers, the cotton farming was arduous and eventually they moved to Tallulah. She married and her husband's brothers lived in Las Vegas so in 1954 Asalee and James joined them.
Interview with Isadore Washington conducted by Claytee D. White on February 7, 2008. Born in Tallulah, Louisiana, Washington came to Las Vegas with his family in 1942 at the age of eight. He recalls playing with Wayne Newton when they were children and life on the Westside. Washington joined the sheriff's department after high school and became the first black deputy sheriff.
Series II provides a history of the Ronzone family, mostly through newspaper clippings and photographs. Thirteen black and white photographs depict scenes in turn-of-the-20th- century mining towns in Alaska, possibly including Nome and Sitka. Bertha and her husband A. B. "Ben" Ronzone were originally in Alaska during the gold rush between 1900 and 1904 before they came to Nevada; these pictures were taken just after that time. Six other photographs in this series feature Ann, Dick, and Bertha Ronzone in social and other contexts. There are also newspaper clippings about Bertha Ronzone and the rest of
the family, telling the story of their pioneer years in central Nevada and their migration to and success in Las Vegas. Finally, there are various obituaries for Dick Ronzone, a list of possible Ronzone relatives, and some personal programs and ephemera from funeral and other personal events.
Archival Collection
Ronzone Family Papers
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Collection Number: MS-00509 Collection Name: Ronzone Family Papers Box/Folder: N/A
George and Bruce Telford holding a hawk shot by their father, Clarence Telford (Pahrump Ranch carpenter), from a flock of several hundred hawks migrating near Pahrump Valley circa 1916-1917.
Essay by Roosevelt Fitzgerald focusing on demographic changes in southern Nevada from 1940-1945 and the war industry's effect on black employment, particularly the impact of Basic Magnesium, dated 1982.