On a sunny day in 1946, the train from Shreveport, Louisiana, stopped at The Plaza hotel in downtown Las Vegas like it always did. But on this particular day, Atha Toliver and her only child, twelve-year-old Barbara, stepped off the train and onto the dusty Western street of Fremont. Narrator Barbara Bates Kirkland recalls that event and living in Las Vegas for most of the next seven decades during this 2004 interview. Like many others who migrated from the South, Barbara Kirkland’s mother would find employment as a maid. A friend who already lived in Las Vegas had told her of the good paying jobs as private maid. So Atha who was determined that her daughter would get an education and a finer future saw this as her opportunity to achieve this for her daughter. Later, the entrepreneurial and creative mother opened Eva’s Flower Basket, a floral shop that Barbara operates in her retirement from teaching. Barbara returned to Louisiana for her senior year in high school, attended Southern University in Baton Rouge, and then returned to Las Vegas to teach first grade at Westside School. Barbara was active in the community, was a founding member of Les Femmes Douze, involved with Zion United Methodist Church and was friends with many of the early African American community leaders at the time. She talks about these, describes various neighborhoods where she lived and about raising her own two children in Las Vegas. Barbara was a founding member of Les Femmes Douze. AKA/Akateens.

Part of an interview with Hazel Geran by Claytee D. White on August 30, 2000. Geran talks about The Cove Hotel and Jackson Hotel on Jackson Street.

Irwin Kishner (1933 ? 2017) was a noted real estate developer, attorney and longtime community leader. In this oral history interview conducted in 2013, he briefly shares his childhood growing up Jewish in Brighton Beach area of Brooklyn, New York. He often speaks of himself in the third person, as he brings to life his roots, his family?s move to Miami where he graduated from high school and the tale of his relocation to Las Vegas to work with his uncles Herman and Maury Kishner. He describes his entrance to Las Vegas as that of a bon vivant. And truly, Irwin, fell in love with the city from the moment he arrived in 1960. Irwin was a graduate of University of Florida (1954) and University of Miami Law School (1958). Both his daughters, Sharon and Joanna, were born in Las Vegas and he reminisces about becoming a Jewish bachelor father to them. In June 2013, shortly before this interview, Irwin celebrated his 80th birthday. He was a proud father, grandfather and energetic businessman who left an indelible mark on everyone he knew. As a developer, he was known for the Somerset Apartments, Somerset House Motel, Somerset Gardens apartment complex, and the Somerset Shopping Center. He enjoyed reflecting on the many community organizations he dedicated himself to, from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority to Opportunity Village to the original Las Vegas Rotary Club to the Community Concert Association?and that?s just to mention a few.

Black and white group photograph of the Aaron Williams youth boys' baseball team. The players wear uniform shirts with the team name "Astros."

Color photograph of Dave and Marcia Washington at Dave Washington's retirement party in 2007.

Black and white photograph of Rueben Wright (age 7), Jeff Wright (age 10) and Hermina Wright (age 11), 1969.