Oral history interview with Jarmilla McMillan-Arnold conducted by Claytee White on October 7, 2010 for the African Americans in Las Vegas: a Collaborative Oral History Project. McMillan-Arnold discusses living on the Westside of Las Vegas, Nevada. She describes her experiences with integration, discrimination, and racism on the Las Vegas Strip. She also discusses her father, Dr. James B. McMillan who served as president of the Las Vegas branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
Oral history interview with Melvin Carter conducted by Claytee D. White on October 12, 2000 for the African Americans in Las Vegas: A Collaborative Oral History Project. In this interview, Carter begins by describing his family history, his father's experience in World War II, and his parents meeting in Chicago, Illinois. Carter describes his family's move to Las Vegas, Nevada in the late 1950s. He goes on to describe businesses on the Westside, including the Cove and the Brown Derby. Digital audio available; no transcript available.
Oral history interview with Catherine Buchanan conducted by Claytee D. White on March 26, 1997 as part of the UNLV University Libraries Oral History Collection. In this interview, Buchanan speaks at length about her child and young adulthood in Louisiana and explains how she moved to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1971. She discusses her first job as a maid at the Landmark Hotel and Casino and how she applied to the Teamsters Union to move into front desk work in the hotels, which led to a job at the Sahara Hotel and Casino. She then talks about discrimination and the small percentage of African Americans in the more "visible" jobs at the hotels.
Interview with Alice Key conducted by Claytee D. White on February 17, 1997. Dancer, writer, and community activist, Key served as Deputy Labor Commissioner for the State of Nevada and leader of the NAACP in Las Vegas. As a newspaper reporter, she exposed the separation of blood plasma according to race in World War II. With Bob Bailey, Key created the first all-black television show in the nation and a radio program, interviewing black entertainers in a talk-show format.
Transcript of interview with Eugene Williams conducted by Claytee White on July 18, 2008. Williams discusses his life as a singer with various musical groups including the Coasters and the Platters, and traveling all over the United States and Europe. He left the Platters in 1990 and settled in Las Vegas. He was part of the Sound of the Platters group in the early 2000s.
Oral history interview with Claytee D. White conducted by Stefani Evans on November 2, 2023 for the African Americans in Las Vegas: a Collaborative Oral History Project. In this interview, Claytee D. White, founding directory of the Oral History Research Center at UNLV Libraries, celebrates the twentieth anniversary of the OHRC by contributing her oral history to the collection.
She begins by explaining how the system of sharecropping worked in her family near rural Ahoskie, North Carolina, and she talks about the field work involved in raising cotton, tobacco, corn, and peanuts. The fifth of eight children and the first daughter, she shares memories of going into town with her mother, of admiring her women teachers, and of attending North Carolina Central College (now University) for two years before moving to Washington, D.C., and working for the telephone company.
After recalling her two years in D.C. and 22 years in Los Angeles, California, she describes "running away" to Las Vegas, Nevada in the early 1990s. Here, at the History department at UNLV, she recalls learning to conduct oral histories. White shares memories of her first interviews with Hazel and Jimmy Gay and Lucille Bryant. She talks of matriculating to the College of William and Mary for her PhD and of returning to Bertie County to live with her mother and administer the office of The Shaw University Center for Alternative Programs in Education (CAPE). She describes how she was offered the position of OHRC founding director, why it matters that she was an "opportunity hire," and how it feels to be the only Black person in a room.
Series of two black and white negatives of policeman Hank Brush posing with Boots Wade and Harold "Stumpy" Cromer in front of Moulin Rouge slot machines, dated July 30, 1955.
Oral history interviews with Cathren J. Holder conducted by Claytee D. White on June 4 and 15, 1996 for the African Americans in Las Vegas: a Collaborative Oral History Project. In this interview, Holder talks about her childhood and education in Fordyce, Arkansas, her move to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1952, and her first experience of living in a two room shack with her older brother and his family. She then discusses her work, marriage, places she shopped, and changes in the Westside since her arrival.
Oral history interview with Lucy Alires conducted by Candice Bush on March 06, 1978 for the Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas. Alires is interviewed about her experiences as a Spanish-American living in Henderson, Nevada. Alires describes the growth of the city, including Carver Park, and discusses some of the discrimination faced by Latin and African American citizens. She also mentions some of the changes in the Las Vegas Strip over time, including the presence of Latin Americans in the hospitality workforce.