Oral history interview with Lillie and Johnny Smith conducted by Claytee D. White on October 19, 2023 for the African Americans in Las Vegas: a Collaborative Oral History Project. In this interview, the couple recalls meeting in Tallulah, Louisiana and marrying in 1973. In 1986, they relocated to Las Vegas, Nevada. Both Lillie and Johnny went to Job Corp and received training that they insist changed their lives and the trajectory of their family. Johhny learned how to drive and operate heavy machinery, and his job at Republic Services utilizes those skills. Lillie became a social worker after obtaining a master's degree.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Francisco Miranda conducted by Claytee D. White on January 28, 2022 for the Latinx Voices of Southern Nevada Oral History Project. In this interview, describes his large family and growing up on the Eastside of Las Vegas and spending summers in Mexico on the family farm. Miranda is an organizer, business agent, and political coordinator for the Teamsters Union. He describes coming from a "union family" - his mother in Culinary and father in the Laborers Union. He shares how despite not completing high school, he started at the Teamsters in 2014, soon became a shop steward, and in 2016 when a 10-week stike was called, he worked as strike captain coordinating the line of picketers. Afterwards, he became Chief Steward and was then hired to work with the Teamsters.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Shannon Rabb conducted by Claytee D. White on December 20, 2022 for the African Americans in Las Vegas: a Collaborative Oral History Project. In this interview, Rabb describes her experience living in the Herbert Gerson Housing Development on the Westwide of Las Vegas. She describes it as safe, as community, and as protection from the police. In this interview, Rabb discusses a wide variety of topics including gangs, drugs, Westside businesses, and family with an expanded definition.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Ann-Marja Lander conducted by Claytee D. White on August 14, 2023 for the Southern Nevada Jewish Heritage Project. In this interview, Lander tells the history of her family living in Europe, getting visas for the United States in 1953, and migratng to Seattle. The family then moved to Souther California, and Lander worked in a department store in high school and joined B'nai B'rith as she began to feel closer to her Jewish heritage. After college, Lander recalls following family moving to Las Vegas, Nevada and joined the Westside Newcomers Club and worked as a certified financial planner. Lander discusses being a member of the Second Generation organization, which is composed of children of Holocaust survivors.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Marietta Robertson Turner Whitaker conducted by Claytee D. White on March 23, 2022 for the African Americans in Las Vegas: a Collaborative Oral History Project. In this interview, Whitaker discusses living in Stockton, California. As a young girl, she performed as a majorette in high school, and found school integration very challenging since the family lived in a non-Black neighborhood. Whitaker was a Girl Scout, entered talent shows, and participated in radio call-in contests to win prizes. Her early work was in retail at J.J. Newberry's and Macy's. Instead of college, Whitaker married, divorced and remarried. After her move to Las Vegas, Nevada, she worked on the Westside for the Town Tavern, Uncle Ben's Barbeque, and Seven Seas.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Christy and Crislove Igeleke conducted by Claytee D. White on November 10, 2023 for the African Americans in Las Vegas: a Collaborative Oral History Project. In this interview, Christy Igeleke, mother of Crislove, describes her childhood in Nigeria where she owned a sewing school. Her daughter, Crislove, was born in Las Vegas, Nevada in 1990 and now serves as the Deputy City Attorney for the City of Las Vegas.
Archival Collection
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.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Leslee Thomas conducted by Claytee D. White on March 13, 2024 for the African Americans in Las Vegas: a Collaborative Oral History Project. Thomas is the granddaughter of Larry Wilburn and daughter of Terry Wilburn, owners of Larry's Sight & Sound, a business institution in the Westside. The business, first located at 1318 D Street, was initially called Larry's Music Bar. The Music Bar moved to Owens Avenue and was renamed Larry's Sight & Sound. For 35 years until 1992, the music shop drew in stars and locals for its vinyl records, record players, and casssettes. In the interview, Thomas shares how she learned to work in the business, stay connected to family, and be a contributing member of the community. She describes her dreams for the Westside, which include giving tourists reasons to visit the Black community, capital investments, and marketing. Digital audio available; no transcript available.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Elizebeth Dewey Russell conducted by Claytee D. White on March 23, 2024 for the African Americans in Las Vegas: a Collaborative Oral History Project. In this interview, Russell talks about her mother, Ruth Bradshaw Dewey, a white woman, who taught at the Westside School (1949-1955), saw Josephine Baker at the El Rancho in 1952, attended the opening night of the Moulin Rouge in 1955, and served as the secretary of the Las Vegas branch of the NAACP for several years. Russell describes living with her mother in the Mayfair deveopment just south of 17th Street at Charleston and graduating from Las Vegas High School. She recalls spending summers with her father, John Bradshaw, in Caliente, Nevada, where he worked as a mechanic for the Union Pacific Railroad.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Jocelyn "Joyce" Egbalic conducted by Stefani Evans for the Reflections: the Las Vegas Asian American and Pacific Islander Oral History Project. Born and raised in Luzon, Philippines, Egbalic recalls her parents' careers as an architectural engineer and draftsman for a municipality. After she graduated high school, the family joined relatives in Minnesota. Joyce eventually relocated to Las Vegas, Nevada in 2003. In this interview, Egbalic discusses her Culinary Union steward duties, job security, medical benefits, and her work as a cocktail server at the Rio versus at the non-union Hard Rock. Digital audio available; no transcript available.
Archival Collection