From the Roosevelt Fitzgerald Professional Papers (MS-01082) -- Unpublished manuscripts file.
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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.
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Interview with Lucille Bryant conducted by Claytee D. White on December 13, 1995. Moving to Las Vegas in 1953 from Tallulah, Louisiana, Bryant worked in the housekeeping departments of the Algiers Hotel, the Silver Slipper, the Sands, and the Stardust. Bryant provides an overview of pre-Civil Rights era conditions in Tallulah and Las Vegas including housing, schools, and working conditions as well as her experiences with the Culinary Workers Union Local 226.
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