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.
The Nevada Political Buttons Collection contains campaign buttons from 1972 to 2000. The collection includes buttons for political candidates at the federal, state, and local levels, including Bill Clinton and Al Gore for President of the United States, Harry Reid for United States Senate from Nevada, Bob Miller for governor of Nevada, and various candidates for Nevada's state legislature and other elected positions. The collection also contains buttons from some of Nevada's local political organizations, including Las Vegas, Nevada's branch of the Culinary Union, Nevada Fair Pay Coalition, and No Nuclear in Nevada.
Oral history interview with William (Bob) Bailey conducted by Claytee White on November 19, 1997 for the African Americans in Las Vegas: a Collaborative Oral History Project. William H. “Bob” Bailey discusses how he arrived in Las Vegas, Nevada in 1955 to become the emcee at the Moulin Rouge and how he entered a black community that used his talents in the fight for equality and justice. He then discusses how the closing of the Moulin Rouge after a few months of operation propelled him into services on the Equal Rights Commission as well as a career in the television industry, ownership in several local gaming establishments, and formation of the NEDCO (Nevada Economic Development Company).
This collection contains the original drafts of the thirteen essays that Elizabeth Harrington wrote about her life in early Las Vegas, Nevada. These articles were written from her memory and experiences of life in Las Vegas beginning in the early 1900s, and were published in the Nevadan section of the Las Vegas Review-Journal from 1975-1979.
Oral history interview with Pat Feaster conducted by Claytee D. White on July 1, 1996 for the African Americans in Las Vegas: a Collaborative Oral History Project. In this interview, Feaster relates how her mother made the decision to leave Fordyce, Arkansas for better economic opportunity and moved to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1942. She describes travelling across the country, living in a one-room structure in the Westside of Las Vegas, and attending the Westside School. She discusses her mother's employment at the Red Rooster Restaurant and then at the Algiers Hotel. She talks at length about her own educational journey after leaving school at fifteen, then returning for her GED and later, a college degree after the birth of her fifth child. She discusses how the decision to improve her education helped her develop a twenty-six year career at the Clark County Health District. She also discusses the Fordyce Club and many important personalities in Las Vegas' Black community.
Oral history interviews with Amilcar “Ace” Daniels conducted by Rodrigo Vazquez and Monserrath Hernández on June 15, 2019 and June 22, 2019 for the Latinx Voices of Southern Nevada Oral History Project. In the first interview, Daniels discusses growing up in Las Vegas, Nevada and shares his parents' emigration story from the Dominican Republic to the United States in the early 1980s. He talks about attending the College of Southern Nevada (CSN), the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR), and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). Later, Daniels speaks on his career in hospitality, his passion for live theater, and his advocacy for the performing arts in Las Vegas. He talks about being a minority person in the hospitality industry, the importance of maintaining his cultural identity, and Latino representation in theater. In the second interview, Daniels discusses his involvement with the non-profit arts organization Super Summer Theatre, and participating in the Las Vegas Pride Festival. Lastly, Daniels talks about issues of colorism in the Latinx community.
The Lori Lipman Brown Papers date from 1975 to 2009 and document former Nevada State Senator Lori Lipman Brown's political career. It includes correspondence and materials from Brown's service as a Nevada State Senator from 1992 to 1994, case files from her defamation lawsuit against Nevada State Senator Kathy Augustine, and papers from her work opposing the Nevada Question 2 ballot measure on same-sex marriage in 2000. The collection also contains photocopies of biographical materials and personal and publicity photographs of Brown, as well as material from her time working with local high school and commmunity theatre programs.
The Dennis McBride Erotica Collection (approximately 1950s-2003) consists of heterosexual and homosexual erotic photograph, drawings, and magazines. The collection also contains reproductions of early pornographic materials from the 1930s and 1940s and a stereoscope viewer with image inserts depicting nude females. This collection provides insight into erotica and pornography dating from the mid- to late- twentieth century.
The Tamara Pickett Papers (1977-1998) are comprised of materials related to the experiences of transgendered individuals in America. The collection includes transgender publications, scientific articles about sex reassignment surgery, and informational material provided to Pickett from various doctors as she planned her own sexual reassignment surgery.
The Kerin Scianna Rodgers Papers (1974-1986) consist of article clippings, memorandums, Democratic voting advertisements, election plans, 1986 list of primary candidates, and personal notes. Also included are district court cases, correspondence, and election day instructions.