Holbert, Elgin, Jr., 1946-

A street on the Westside is named for Elgin Holbert's grandmother, Viola Cunningham, who was an early land owner. It is believed that in 2002 she donated the property for Madison School now renamed Wendell P. Williams Elementary School. Although from Eudora, Arkansas, a few miles from Mississippi, his parents are a mixed couple, mother is White and father, Black. His mother was treated well in the Westside community but was very private concentrating on rearing her children with little community interaction. His father worked as a Red Cap on the Union Pacific Railroad, a job that Elgin tried for a short while when his father passed. Other jobs included Nevada Power and then the gaming industry where he dealt cards, mostly Blackjack, for fifty years - Riviera -15 years; Tropicana - 15 years; Treasure Island - 20 years. He was trained as a dealer after the 1971 consent decree that demands hotel-casino jobs in many categories for Blacks. Holbert recalls businesses on the Westside including Sammy's Pool Hall, Louisiana Club, and the bowling alley where he set pins as a young boy but lost the job to automation when he and others threatened to strike. They were fired instead and the bowling alley transitioned to machinery that took their jobs. Elgin loved growing up in the community playing baseball, basketball, swimming at the Jefferson Pool and later at Dula Center once integration allowed Blacks on the premises. He talked about the influence of Jimmy Gay, Q.B. Bush, and other community leaders.