Oral history interview with Mary Wilson conducted by Patricia Conerly on March 23, 1976 for the Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas. In this interview Wilson discusses her personal experiences in Las Vegas, Nevada as an African-American woman living in Las Vegas in the 1950s and onward.
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Audio clip from interview with Lawrence Weekly by Claytee D. White, April 22, 2013. Weekly talks about the struggles of being an elected official on the Westside.
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Dr. Goldman discusses the lawsuit and ensuing "war" that resulted in the school district hiring more minorities in teacher and administrator positions.
Interview with Woodrow Wilson conducted by Jamie Coughtry in 1989. Born in a Mississippi sawmill town in 1915 to a family that ran a boarding house, Wilson completed high school at a private boarding school and attended two years of junior college before the declining economy forced him into the Civilian Conservation Corps to work as a cook and baker. Migrating west in 1940, Wilson soon settled in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he worked for Basic Magnesium, Inc. He became a prominent Westside community activist, founding a federal credit union and serving as president of the Las Vegas NAACP. Wilson worked for over thirty years as a warehouseman for companies that occupied the Basic Magnesium site. In 1966, he was elected to the state assembly, becoming the first black legislator in the history of Nevada, advocating open housing legislation, anti-discrimination regulations, welfare reform, and civil rights.
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Interview with Vicki Richardson conducted by Claytee D. White on August 19, 2003. As a high school junior in Wilmington, Delaware, Richardson was one of twelve African American students chosen to integrate the school system. A civil rights activist in high school and college, Richardson wrote letters to local newspapers and engaged in protests to desegregate public spaces. Inspired by Harlem Renaissance painters, Richardson paid her way through college by teaching art at a recreation center. She went on to Vanderbilt University and later the University of Chicago where she had a Ford Foundation Fellowship to study inner-city education. She taught at Forestville High School in Chicago where she was Chairwoman of the Art Department and later at Rancho High School in Las Vegas. Richardson owns Left of Center Art Gallery in North Las Vegas and several other local businesses.
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Newspaper article featuring information about the Negro National History Week events taking place in schools and churches in February 1965.
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Part of an interview with Essie Lee Jones, June 5, 1996. In this clip, Jones describes racism she encountered while she was working as a waitress.
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Part of an interview with Dr. Agnes Lockette by Shannon Smith on February 6, 1980. Lockette describes developing the early childhood education program at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and describes challenges in the Las Vegas public school systems during the population boom of the 1950s.
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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.
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Oral history interview with Jackie Hyatte conducted by Cathy Jones on May 08, 1978 for the Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas. Hyatte discusses the social changes that the African American community went through in Las Vegas, Nevada; gambling, and casinos.
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