Gwendolyn K. Walker arrived in North Las Vegas in 1962 from Houston, Texas, as a five-year-old with her parents, two brothers, and her cousins. The Walker family at first moved to a rented house on D Street, and Gwen attended Kit Carson Elementary School for first grade. Her mother enrolled in nursing school, so she sent Gwen back to Delhi, Louisiana, to be raised by her grandmother. In Delhi Gwen picked cotton with her aunt while she was in the second grade. Gwen returned to North Las Vegas to live with her mother and complete elementary school at Jo Mackey before matriculating to J. D. Smith Elementary School for junior high school and then to Clark High School. Later she attended UNLV. Gwen and her mother joined Saint James Catholic Church at H Street and Washington Avenue, but after she returned from Delhi she joined Second Baptist Church, where she became close with a cohort of friends that remained strong even as she experienced racism and bullying and love for the first time.
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Oral history interview with Michael Kinnaird conducted by Erika Wagstaff on November 17, 2006 for the Public School Principalship Oral History Project. In this interview, Kinnaird reflects upon his nearly 30-year career with the Clark County School District (CCSD) as a middle and high school administrator from the 1970s to the early 2000s. He describes his upbringing and early experiences that led to his pursuit of school administration, and challenges that he faced as an administrator. He discusses challenges surrounding student diversity, and comments on the overall diversity of CCSD.
Archival Collection