Oral history interview with Alice Cowles Brown conducted by Eric M. Cheese for the Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas. In this interview Brown offers an overview of life in Las Vegas and Henderson from 1956 to 1981. Brown then discusses road conditions, social structures, the educational system, support for intercollegiate sports and UNLV.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Patricia Lee conducted by Stefani Evans and Claytee White on September 19, 2023 for the Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project. Lee begins the interview by discussing her childhood in Daegu, South Korea, born to a Black American father and a Korean mother. Patricia Lee arrived in the United States with her parents as a young child when the U.S. Air Force transferred her father to Vandenburg Air Force Base in California. Lee was seven when her father left. With her mother speaking no English, Lee was responsible for her family's food stamps and social services even as they endured serial evictions and homelessness that included a stay in a shelter for abused women. In middle school, Upward Bound was Lee's "game-changer." As she had in high school, Lee immersed herself in student life and academics at the University of Southern California, while also working several jobs. After graduation, she worked at the California Science Center Museum before entering law school at George Washington University. She graduated in May 2002, shortly after the legal profession had lost several top law firms that had been headquartered in New York City's Twin Towers. When she accepted an offer from Las Vegas firm Hutchison & Steffen, she became the firm's first woman attorney and first attorney of color; seven years later, she became the firm's first woman partner and first partner of color. Lee was appointed to the bench of the Supreme Court of Nevada in November 2022 by Governor Steve Sisolak.
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Oral history interview with Mary Ellen Campbell conducted by Ronald Robinson on March 06, 1977 for the Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas. During the interview Campbell talks about her parents’ move to the United States from England and her own life growing up in Panaca, Nevada. She also talks about living in Pioche, Nevada and the conditions of living in two small towns.
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Oral history interview with Raymond Oscar Breyfogle conducted by Suzanne Snyder on March 15, 1976 for the Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas. Breyfogle discusses his personal history and Nevada’s history, highlighting the Nevada ghost towns.
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Oral history interview with Erika Castro conducted by Maribel Estrada Calderon on November 12, 2018 for the Latinx Voices of Southern Nevada Oral History Project. In this interview, Castro discusses her early life in Mexico City, Mexico before migrating with her family to North Las Vegas, Nevada in 1992. She describes adapting to the city, her early education, and learning that she was an undocumented immigrant. Castro then talks about Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and how DACA gave her a vision for a future for the first time. Later, Castro discusses The Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act and explains objectives of the nonprofit organization, Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada (PLAN). Lastly, Castro talks about her involvement with Planned Parenthood, studying social work at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), and immigration resources provided by the UNLV Law Clinic.
Archival Collection
Archival Component
Oral history interviews with Rozita Lee conducted by Stefani Evans, Cecilia Winchell, Kristel Peralta, Vanessa Concepcion, Jerwin Tiu, and Su Kim Chung on June 1, 2021, April 12, 2022, and May 18, 2023 for Reflections: The Las Vegas Asian American and Pacific Islander Oral History Project. Rozita shares her experiences growing up on a sugar plantation with her family in Hawaii. She talks about the benefits her family received and the "privileged" life she led with her father as the plantation boss, allowing her household to have electricity, plumbing, and a telephone. Rozita discusses her use of Pidgin English amongst her peers and "good English" in her household, and the roles and responsibilities her parents had working on the plantation. She shares what life was like day to day and what she remembers growing up during World War II including hearing air raid sirens and hanging blackout curtains in her home. Rozita also talks about meeting her husband, Clifford Lee, in high school, their marriage in 1979, and how the couple came to move to Las Vegas. In the second interview, Lee discusses pursuing a bachelor's degree at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), working with Governor Miller and Bob Bailey, and her involvement in a Polynesian show at Imperial Palace for eighteen years.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Thelma Turner conducted by Claytee D. White on October 21, 2004 for the African Americans in Las Vegas: a Collaborative Oral History Project. In this interview, Turner discusses her family background and moving to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1947. She describes the city at the time and recalls her educational experiences while attending the Fifth Street School and Las Vegas High School. Turner then talks about her involvement as a teacher for Sunday church school and her employment at the Moulin Rouge Hotel-Casino as a change girl and waitress. Later, Turner discusses the Helldorado Parade, racial integration, and being the first African American family to move to North Las Vegas in 1966. Lastly, Turner describes housing and what the community was like in the Westside.
Archival Collection
Oral history presentation by George Kielak to an unidentified group recorded on February 1, 2007. In his talk, Kielak explains that he was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1929 and was nine years old when Germany occupied the country. He describes what it was like living under the German occupation forces and comments that of all the occupied countries during World War II, Poland suffered the most severe restrictions and punishments. He then outlines the progress of the war from 1939 to 1944, a period in which he joined the Polish resistance movement. He explains that after the resistance fighters rose up against the Germans in 1944 Russia would not help, leading to the collapse of the movement, his capture by the German forces, and his seven month internment in a POW camp. He describes immigrating to England at the end of the war because Poland became part of the Soviet Union. After serving in the British Army, he immigrated to the United States in 1950. At the end of the presentation he shows maps and photographs and answers questions from the audience.
Archival Collection