Oral history interview with Katherine L. Rankin conducted by Claytee D. White on June 16, 2014 for the Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project. In the interview, Rankin discusses her childhood, her move to Las Vegas, Nevada, and her career as a librarian. Rankin talks about how she began her library career on the Gila River Reservation in Arizona before accepting a position as an audio and visual materials cataloger at University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) in the 1970s. Rankin later describes her work with the American Library Association, getting tenure at UNLV, and her role as a map cataloger in UNLV Special Collections and Archives.
Sandra Peña’s story begins in East Los Angeles, where she spent her first fifteen years with her parents (both from Michoacán, Mexico), and her younger sister. The father's managerial position at Master Products allowed the family to live rent-free in a company-owned house behind the main factory, because he collected the rents for the company's two other dwellings. In this interview, Peña recalls the family move to Porterville, in California's Central Valley, her return to Los Angeles at nineteen, and her work with Parson’s Dillingham, a contractor for the Metrolink rail system. She draws the link between the Los Angeles and Las Vegas construction communities by describing her husband's move to Las Vegas to find work; a chance Las Vegas encounter with a friend from Chino, California; her ability to gain employment in Las Vegas at Parson’s, a company that had joint ventured with Parson’s Dillingham, and her move from there to Richardson Construction, a local minority-owned company. As Peña says, "It's kind of all intermingled. Even if you go here and you go there, it's like everybody knows everybody." Throughout, Peña weaves her family story into the narrative as she describes her youth, the birth of her son, the illness and death of her father, and her family's participation in her current employment with Richardson. As she remembers the people, places, and events of her life, Peña speaks to the ways one woman of color built on her interstate construction connections and rose in a male-dominated industry.
Arby L. Hambric's book entitled, "To Thee I See: From picking in the fields of Texas to cooking for dignitaries on U.S. Navy ships, a journey I wouldn't change," describes his profound journey from working in the cotton fields as a child to being drafted into the U.S. Navy, before completing high school. During this interview, he recalls the significant achievements of the "Red Tails" and the Tuskegee Airmen. Beginning his 20 year Navy career before military integration, Arby describes the racial tensions that plagued the U.S. Navy in the 1940s, and discusses how he was able to successfully navigate that racist environment for two decades and three war eras. Arby enrolled in San Diego State College after leaving the U.S. Navy. He also worked as maintenance personnel for Sears and Roebuck and started a catering business with his wife. He became a member of the Southern Nevada Enterprise Community, SNEC Board upon moving to Las Vegas, Nevada, after his wife died. With a family legacy he can be proud of, Arby highlights the achievements of his great grandson Taquan Mizzell, a Virginia Cavaliers running back at the University of Virginia. As a Navy veteran, Arby often volunteered his time and resources to help others in need. He recalls driving the sick and elderly back and forth from the Westside community to Valley Hospital or University Medical Center, UMC. He also discusses government enforced road closures and a wall that was built to block Blacks from entering the new downtown. This interview sheds new light on military integration and offers key strategies for overcoming environmental racism. Arby mentions a documentary about the closing of the wall and offers his predictions on the future of the Westside.
Oral history interview with Charles Lee Hank III conducted by Claytee D. White and Barbara Tabach on April 10, 2019 for the Remembering 1 October Oral History Project.
Charles Lee Hank III describes his experience with police growing up in Chicago and the dichotomy he feels now as a police officer for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LV Metro). Hank discusses the events of the October 1 shooting at the Route 91 Festival, the chaotic experience he and other officers experienced as they looked for the shooter in the Mandalay Bay, and the aftermath as a member of the Las Vegas community and as an officer of LV Metro.
Subjects discussed include: Las Vegas Strip Area Command.