LaVerne Ligon was born in 1942 in Washington D.C. Around the age of nine, she started dancing at the Jones-Haywood School of Ballet, which started her career in dance. She took her first job as a professional dancer when she was eighteen with the Capitol Ballet Company. She moved to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1973. In 1974, she successfully auditioned for a touring cast of Hello, Dolly! After completing that show, Ligon performed in a number of productions in Las Vegas, including Hallelujah Hollywood and Jubilee. She retired from dancing in the early 1980s after sustaining an injury and she opened the Simba Talent Agency, a dance school for at-risk youth. She also worked for Family Services, but is now retired. She continues to work on projects with the Simba Talent Agency. BJ Thomas was born in 1935 in Plain Dealing, Louisiana. He moved to Las Vegas in 1968 after working for the Post Office in San Francisco. He worked a number of jobs for two years before beginning to pursue work as a stage hand. Thomas worked for shows at the Tropicana and Caesars Palace. He is currently retired. Leonard Polk Jr. was born in 1948 in Monroe, Louisiana. He and his mother moved to Las Vegas in 1949 when he was just two months old. His father worked on the Hoover Dam. Polk grew up in West Las Vegas and remembers the movement to integrate the schools in the city. As a young adult, he joined the Marines and served a tour of duty in Vietnam. Polk began to work for shows in Las Vegas after he finished his military career. He worked for the Aladdin Baghdad Theater and for the MGM Grand Hotel. He is currently retired, but remains active with the First African Methodist Episcopal Church.
The Latinx Voices of Southern Nevada Community Collection (approximately 1973-2020) consists of artwork, memorabilia, ephemera, event fliers, and event photographs donated by members of the Latinx community in Las Vegas, Nevada and collected by staff members of the Oral History Research Center at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). Materials were donated and collected as part of the Latinx Voices of Southern Nevada oral history and community engagement project hosted by UNLV University Libraries. Some of the materials in this collection are related to oral history interviews for Lidia Bonilla, Horacio Lopez, Krystal Ramirez, and Gustavo Ramos. This collection also includes fliers and posters advertising events in the Latinx community, campaign signs for Latinx candidates running for office, and Spanish language campaign signs.
Handwritten description provided on back of image: "Fundraiser for Las Vegas Public Libr. Bldg. Beda Cornwall, middle; Fed Beeman, right." Included with the image is a Las Vegas Review-Journal article titled "Help Us Write History - 12/22/85."
Interview with Dr. Agnes Lockette conducted by Shannon Smith on February 26, 1980. Lockette moved to Nevada to be an elementary school teacher and an early childhood education professor at UNLV. She reviews the evolution of education in Las Vegas from the 1950s through the 1980s.