Oral history panel composed of University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) students Lisa McAllister, Larry Sampson, John Grygo, and Ashley Smith along with community narrators Jerrie Merritt, Geraldine Kirk Hughes, Keith Brantley, and Hannah Brown, moderated by Julia Lee and Claytee White on March 30, 2016 for the African Americans in Las Vegas: A Collaborative Oral History Project. The group discusses working with each other during the collection of oral histories for the project, the value of the interchange for both narrator and interviewer, the value of oral histories as repositories of individual and collective memory, and related stories about their experiences.
Oral history interview with Dr. Porter Troutman conducted by Claytee D. White on November 20, 2006 for the UNLV @ 50 Oral History Project. Troutman discusses his activism in the Civil Rights Movement during college. He also discusses working for the National Teacher Corps and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in multicultural education.
Oral history interview with Clarence Ray conducted by Eleanor L. Walker in 1991 for the African American in Las Vegas: a Collaborative Oral History Project. In this interview, Ray provides details of his ancestry and upbringing, his education, and race relations in the western United States before 1930. He then moves on to his first visit to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1922, and his movements before settling permanently in the 1940s. He explains that the main source of employment for the relatively small Black population during the 1920s and early 1930s was the railroad, but a number were also in business. Mr. Ray provides thumbnail sketches of many of the early residents, and is particularly informative about "Mammy" Pinkston, Mary Nettles, the Stevens family, and the Ensley family. Systemic racial discrimination against Blacks developed in southern Nevada during the 1930s, and Mr. Ray provides some useful details on this along with his discussion of his career in gaming and his social and political activities.
The Alice Key Papers (1936-2004) consist of documents detailing Alice Key’s life and work in the African American community, historic preservation, and labor relations in Las Vegas, Nevada. Included in the collection are awards and certificates documenting Key’s achievements, invitations and programs to events, political and civic correspondence, and magazine and newspaper articles both about Key and written by her. The collection also contains photographs.
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.
Oral history interview with Coleen York Wilson conducted by Claytee D. White on June 4, 1996 for the African Americans in Las Vegas: a Collaborative Oral History Project. In this interview, Wilson talks about growing up in Fordyce, Arkansas before moving to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1953 at the age of eighteen. She mentions that her parents had moved to Nevada in 1940 to work at Basic Magnesium, Incorporated (BMI), living in a trailer before returning to Fordyce two years later. She then discusses moving to Las Vegas to join an older sister and relates that she did not remember any discrimination in seating or eating meals during her bus trip. After this, Wilson lists the jobs she held in Las Vegas before her retirement in 1984, including work at the Las Vegas Cleaners, serving as a school crossing guard, and working as a housekeeping supervisor at the Stardust Resort Hotel, the Hacienda Resort Hotel, and Circus Circus Hotel and Casino before taking a job at the Nevada Test Site. She also talks about her family, her church activities, and her regret at not attending college.
Oral history interview with James Rogers conducted by Claytee D. White on June 30, 2009 for the Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project - NAACP. Rogers discusses many issues that affected the black community in Las Vegas, Nevada, gives background on community marches against police brutality, details three controversial cases and legislation that would create a citizen's review board for police and sheriff departments.
Oral history interviews with Reverend Jesse Scott conducted by Claytee D. White on April 15, 2004, May 20, 2004, June 04, 2004, and June 17, 2004 for the Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project. Scott begins his interviews by discussing his personal history in Louisiana during the 1930s. He describes race relations at the time and recalls anecdotes about his experiences while he was attending college at Southern University. He then discusses the discriminatory actions, especially towards African American men, and how it affected them. Scott then talks about his involvement with the Los Angeles, California branch of the National Association of the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in the late 1940s, women's participation in the NAACP, and the implementation of equal employment opportunities. Lastly, Scott discusses moving from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1970 after receiving an offer to serve as the executive director for the Las Vegas branch of the NAACP.
Oral history interview with Audrey Taylor Henry conducted by Claytee D. White on February 26, 2010 for the Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project. In this interview Audrey Henry discusses her early childhood, going to the prestigious New York School of Performing Arts, and becoming a dancer. She then talks about dancing around the world and in Las Vegas, Nevada. She also discusses having to leave dance to have more time with her family, becoming an on-air radio personality, and earning her undergraduate and master's degrees.