The Las Vegas African American Community Conversations is a four part, one hour round table conversation with local Las Vegans. They share their powerful stories and great history, with topics ranging from “Migration, Civil Rights, Education, Church, Entertainment and the Early Legal Community”. Part One: A conversation about “Early Migration, Work and Community Emergence”. MODERATOR- Trish Geran ( Author/Community Activist) PANELISTS- Lucille Bryant (Community Activist) Jackie Brantley (Former Director-Office of Governor Kenny Guinn) Hannah Brown (Urban Chamber of Commerce) David L. Washington (1st Black Chief of Las Vegas Fire & Rescue Department) Brenda J. Williams (President-Westside School Alumni Foundation)
Part of an interview with Judge Lee Gates by Claytee D. White on December 5, 1996. Gates explores his mother's motivations for moving to Las Vegas in the 1950s.
Part of an interview with Lucille Bryant conducted by Claytee D. White on December 13, 1995. In the clip, Bryant compares economic opportunities in Tallulah and Las Vegas in the 1950s.
Part of an interview with Jean S. Childs, December 2, 2013. In this clip, Jean Childs describes an experience she had helping someone at the Concentrated Employment Program.
Interview with Alma Whitney conducted by Claytee D. White on March 3, 1996. Seeking better employment opportunities, Whitney moved to Las Vegas from Tallulah, Louisiana, at the age of sixteen. Whitney supported Westside churches and schools and was respected as supervisor in housekeeping at Desert Inn. Whitney provides information on the African American migration to Las Vegas during the 1940s, post-war race relations in Las Vegas, the daily work of hotel maids, and the Culinary Union.
Interview with Woodrow Wilson conducted by Jamie Coughtry in 1989. Born in a Mississippi sawmill town in 1915 to a family that ran a boarding house, Wilson completed high school at a private boarding school and attended two years of junior college before the declining economy forced him into the Civilian Conservation Corps to work as a cook and baker. Migrating west in 1940, Wilson soon settled in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he worked for Basic Magnesium, Inc. He became a prominent Westside community activist, founding a federal credit union and serving as president of the Las Vegas NAACP. Wilson worked for over thirty years as a warehouseman for companies that occupied the Basic Magnesium site. In 1966, he was elected to the state assembly, becoming the first black legislator in the history of Nevada, advocating open housing legislation, anti-discrimination regulations, welfare reform, and civil rights.