Kim Bird's family moved to Las Vegas in 1955 when she was twelve years old. Pam Fogliasso arrived in 1954 with her family in 1954, when she was ten. Kim married and had a son and a daughter; she lives in Las Vegas. Pam married, had two children, and lives in Parumph, Nevada. Though Kim and Pam moved here in the mid-1950s, they had family members who had lived in Southern Nevada and worked on building Hoover Dam - Kim's grandfather and Pam's great-uncle. Both women remember growing up in a Las Vegas that was run by the mob and safe for teenagers; meeting friends in local hangouts such as the Blue Onion and attending sock hops, babysitting, and cruising down Fremont Street. They attended high school with black students but were also aware of the segregation that existed on the Strip. This interview focuses on Kim and Pam's experiences growing up in Las Vegas, and on their teenaged years attending Rancho High School.
Flora (Turchinsky) Dungan (1917-1973) was a Nevada Assemblywoman and University Regent who successfully sued the state of Nevada twice in order to gain additional representation for Clark County in the legislature and the Board of Regents (the governing board of the state's university system). As a result of Dungan v. Sawyer in 1964, seats were reapportioned in the Nevada legislature and Clark County gained four seats in the Assembly and seven in the Senate. After Dungan sued Nevada again in 1967, Clark County gained the majority of seats on the Board of Regents.