First interview in a series of five with Nevada State Senator Joe Neal conducted by Claytee D. White on January 24, 2006. Born in Mounds, Louisiana, in 1935, Neal joined his family in Las Vegas as a young man shortly before serving in the United States Air Force from 1954 to 1958. Following his military service, he earned a bachelor's degree in political science at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Neal continued his education at the Institute of Applied Science in Chicago, Illinois, with postgraduate work in law. From 1973 to 2001, he served in the Nevada Legislature as the Senator from Clark County Senatorial District No. 4. In the first interview, Neal recalls his childhood, moving to Las Vegas as a teenager, and joining the Air Force. He discusses his early experiences in politics and his involvement in various issues.
Second interview in a series of five with Nevada State Senator Joe Neal conducted by Claytee D. White on February 7, 2006. Born in Mounds, Louisiana, in 1935, Neal joined his family in Las Vegas as a young man shortly before serving in the United States Air Force from 1954 to 1958. Following his military service, he earned a bachelor's degree in political science at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Neal continued his education at the Institute of Applied Science in Chicago, Illinois, with postgraduate work in law. From 1973 to 2001, he served in the Nevada Legislature as the Senator from Clark County Senatorial District No. 4. In the second interview, Neal focuses on his work during the 1960s and 1970s.
Interview with Johnny Pate and Jillean Williams conducted by Claytee D. White on March 4, 2004. As a jazz pianist and composer, Pate was a close friend to legendary singer Joe Williams. Pate and Williams share fond memories of touring with Joe Williams and the Count Basie Orchestra, cruises on the Norwegian line, and playing at the Dunes. Williams recalls moving to Las Vegas with Joe in 1968 and their first home on the Las Vegas Country Club golf course, where they were visited by the likes of Joe Lewis, Perry Como, and Andy Williams. Pate also details his long career, which began with teaching himself piano, tuba, and bass fiddle in the Army, and progressed to arranging and composing, which led over time to record company deals and film scores. Teaching at UNLV, Pate continues the yearly benefit concert to raise money for the Joe Williams scholarship fund.
Part of an interview with Rev. Marion D. Bennett, Sr. conducted by Claytee D. White on January 12, 2004. Bennett recalls working with Los Angeles labor organizer Jim Anderson to form the Nevada Voters League.
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.
Interview with Ruby Duncan conducted by Claytee White in two sessions on February 13, 2007 and March 2, 2007. Duncan discusses her employment history and dependence on public assistance in Las Vegas, as well as her participation in the Welfare Rights Movement and Operation Life.
The UNLV University Libraries Photographs of the Jewish Community of Southern Nevada (2015-2018) are comprised of digital images captured as part of the Southern Nevada Jewish Heritage Project. The photographs include members of the Southern Nevada Jewish community, synagogues Temple Beth Sholom (current and original site), Congregation Ner Tamid (including aerials), Chabad of Las Vegas, Temple Sinai, and Midbar Kodesh Temple. There are also photographs of The Desert Torah Academy's Robert Cohen Educational Campus, the future site of Chabad of Green Valley, the Holocaust Resource Center, Manpower Las Vegas’s 50th anniversary celebration, and the House of Straus.
Bert Hood is celebrated in Las Vegas's gay history for his ownership of the Red Barn, one of our most famous gay bars. This is another of those serendipitous interviews I've conducted with someone I very much wanted to interview but didn't know how to find. Bert's in Las Vegas from Oklahoma City for just a short while visiting old friends, and I was lucky enough to have found him through Bill Schafer, president of the Southern Nevada Gay and Lesbian Historical Society. I want to thank you, Bert, for donating these two hours of your vacation time to me so I can preserve your stories for the gay community.