Interview with Lubertha Johnson conducted by Larry V. Buckner on February 10, 1978. Johnson moved to Las Vegas in the late 1940s from Mississippi and worked as a recreation director, nurse, and director of an anti-poverty progam, serving as a civic leader.
In 1981, Doris Rodriguez (center) moved to Las Vegas from Topeka, Kansas, with her husband and young son. In 1983, her younger sister, Yvette Carrero (right) and her boyfriend moved to Las Vegas from Lorain, Ohio. The next year, 1984, her brother David Carrero (left), his wife and young son also moved to Las Vegas. In 1985, Doris' sister, Elizabeth and her husband moved here with their two daughters from Lorain, Ohio. In the years since moving to Las Vegas, Doris gave birth to another son as did her brother's wife. Such interfamilial migration patterns and subsequent family expansions are responsible in large part for the impressive growth of Las Vegas, Nevada.
Sandra Candel is a native of Guadalajara, Mexico, where she was raised by her maternal grandparents and extended family. She describes what she refers to as “a legacy of migrants” within her family including her often absent mother.
As a child she was instilled with a love of education and the value of hard work. As a young adult, she migrated to the United States, southern California specifically. There she joined her mother and began her higher education.
Around the turn of the century, Ramon Sanchez emigrated from Spain to the United States where he became a rancher in Tremonita, New Mexico. Many years later, his son, Cesario, migrated to Liberal, Kansas, to work on the railroad. It was there that his daughter, Marcelina, pictured above, was born and raised and where she eventually met and married her musician husband, Gene Sandusky. In 1941, the Sanduskys moved to Las Vegas where they settled in a new housing tract called Sunrise Acres. Some 45 years later, Mrs. Sandusky stands in her back yard with the original Sunrise Acres community well and water tower looming prominently in the background. Presently, Mrs. Sandusky is working hard to gather the history of that still cohesive neighborhood, one of the earliest in Las Vegas.
Theresa Brickley and Elizabeth Burkey come from very different corners of the world, but were united by dance in Las Vegas. Theresa was bom and raised in Tokyo, and immigrated to the United States with her American husband. Elizabeth, better known as Liz, was bom in Detroit, Michigan into a family of performance artists. Theresa's first dance job was disrupted by World War II, while Liz's break came when becoming a Rockette at Radio City Music Hall. Migrating to Las Vegas from Seattle and California respectively, the two met as performers in the Sun City Dance Company, and became the best of friends. They have performed all over the city, including Sahara, Rio, and Mirage, to name a few.
Interview with Katherine Duncan and Sarann Knight Preddy conducted by Claytee D. White on November 28, 2004. Duncan moved to Las Vegas in 1977, worked with Nevada Motion Picture Services, and owned a travel agency. She started a black heritage tour of Las Vegas.
Leandrew Winston was born October 06, 1947 in Grady, Arkansas, and migrated first to California and then to Las Vegas, Nevada. In Las Vegas, Winston became a well-connected figure in the African American community and often told stories about his experiences with police brutality. He chose to work in public broadcasting, and in 1971 became the first African American to work at PBS at Channel 10. Winston started hosting “Ten on the Black side”, his own television news talk show in 1975, and later became the Minority Affairs Director at Channel 10.
Lawerence "Larry" Chiu Hill is at Lawerence C. Hill and Associates. He speaks about his experiences of living in Taiwan and the processes of migrating from Taiwan during middle school to South America and eventually Corpus Christi, Texas where he would spend most of his childhood up until high school. Lawerence speaks on his father's experiences being a gaming marketer during the 90s and being heavily involved in scouting high rollers into Las Vegas casinos.