Oral history interview with Claytee D. White conducted by Stefani Evans on November 2, 2023 for the African Americans in Las Vegas: a Collaborative Oral History Project. In this interview, Claytee D. White, founding directory of the Oral History Research Center at UNLV Libraries, celebrates the twentieth anniversary of the OHRC by contributing her oral history to the collection.
She begins by explaining how the system of sharecropping worked in her family near rural Ahoskie, North Carolina, and she talks about the field work involved in raising cotton, tobacco, corn, and peanuts. The fifth of eight children and the first daughter, she shares memories of going into town with her mother, of admiring her women teachers, and of attending North Carolina Central College (now University) for two years before moving to Washington, D.C., and working for the telephone company.
After recalling her two years in D.C. and 22 years in Los Angeles, California, she describes "running away" to Las Vegas, Nevada in the early 1990s. Here, at the History department at UNLV, she recalls learning to conduct oral histories. White shares memories of her first interviews with Hazel and Jimmy Gay and Lucille Bryant. She talks of matriculating to the College of William and Mary for her PhD and of returning to Bertie County to live with her mother and administer the office of The Shaw University Center for Alternative Programs in Education (CAPE). She describes how she was offered the position of OHRC founding director, why it matters that she was an "opportunity hire," and how it feels to be the only Black person in a room.
Oral history interview with Elgin Holbert Jr. conducted by Claytee D. White on April 28, 2021 for African Americans in Las Vegas: a Collaborative Oral History Project.
Elgin Holbert Jr. discusses growing up in the Westside community of Las Vegas, the activities he participated in as a child, community leaders he admired, and his observations of mixed family life (as his father was Black and his mother was white). Elgin also speaks of his work as a Red Cap on the Union Pacific Railroad (UPR), his time at Nevada Power, and his experience dealing cards at various Las Vegas casinos including the Riviera Hotel and Casino (for 15 years), the Tropicana Las Vegas (for 15 years), and the Treasure Island Hotel (for 20 years).
Subjects discussed include: Viola Cunningham; Union Pacific Railroad; Riviera Hotel and Casino; Tropicana Las Vegas Hotel Casino; Treasure Island Hotel; Cotton Bowl; Jimmy Gay; Jefferson Recreational Center; and Eleanor Walker
From the Las Vegas Bugle Photograph Collection on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History (PH-00336). Jeff Williams. (1995) Bouncer at Backstreet & Buffalo and Angels-n-Lace. Coordinator of the 20-something youth group for the Gay and Lesbian Community Center.
A man wearing a sign advertising Guild Theatre. The sign reads: "Now Showing Guild Theatre 'The Gay Deceivers' in Simply Devine Color." Site Name: Guild Theatre (Las Vegas, Nev.)