Sherrill and Samuel Coleman moved to Las Vegas during the 1990s after both enjoying a full life and numerous careers in other parts of the United States. They met each other through church in 1998 and married each other in April 1999. Now retired, both Samuel and Sherrill remain active in their church community. Samuel Coleman was born in Durant, Mississippi in 1928 to a sharecropping family. His father died when he was 13 months old, leaving his mother to raise seven children by herself. Over time, his family slowly migrated to Chicago and he joined them when he was 15. For eight months, Samuel worked a number of different jobs until he began to work for Burlington Railroad as a four cook. The United States Army drafted him in 1951 and sent him overseas to work in a motor pool for a military hospital in Korea, despite his status as a conscientious objector. At war’s end, he returned to work for Burlington. During his last 17 years with the railroad, Samuel successfully petitioned to join the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the union for railroad cooks, porters, and waiters, to improve the working and sleeping conditions at Burlington Railroad. He retired from the railroads in the 1970s and chose to pursue other careers. Until his official retirement in 1993, Samuel worked in real estate, as the owner of a liquor store, a firefighter, a restaurant inspector, and a deacon for his church. His daughter from his first wife moved to Vegas to pursue a career as a teacher and after a number of visits, Samuel decided to follow her in 1999. Sherrill Coleman was born in Newton, Kansas in 1941. Like many other African American women in her community, she worked as a housekeeper for a number of years. She and her first husband moved to Los Angeles County in 1964 where she took a temporary job in the elections department of the local government. In 1967, Sherrill became a file clerk for Los Angeles County’s Department of Public Social Services. By the time she left the department, she was middle management in the auditing department. She moved to Vegas in 1993.

Interview with Rabbi Shea Harlig by Barbara Tabach on March 5, 2014. In this interview, Rabbi Harlig discusses the Chabad movement of Orthodox Judaism and establishment of Chabad centers in Las Vegas and Southern Nevada. Rabbi Harlig talks about the property he has acquired for Chabad, and its outreach programs, including supervision of kosher kitchens in hotels. This interview was conducted for the Ward 1: West Charleston Neighborhoods oral history project, and therefore includes zoning and neighborhood discrimination issues, and a tour of the property.

Rabbi Shea Harlig arrived in Las Vegas in 1990 and settled in the Artesian Heights neighborhood of Las Vegas. As Director of Chabad of Southern Nevada, Rabbi Harlig focuses on religious outreach, education and social services, and has helped establish seven Chabad locations throughout the community and also built a school and educational program of the highest standards.