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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.
Archival Collection
From the Sister Klaryta Antoszewska Photograph Collection (PH-00352). From Slides #1550 through 1557.Newspaper title text: “Powers Pleads Guilty to Spying; Tells Soviet Court, ‘I Am Sorry’; Eisenhower Rebuts Propaganda”.
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From the Sister Klaryta Antoszewska Photograph Collection (PH-00352). From Slides #1550 through 1557. Newspaper title text: “U.S. Troops Enter Action in Korea; Marines Ordered to Battle Area; More Big Bombers Will Be Sent”.
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