Clinton Wright discusses the riots in the predominantly Black Westside neighborhood in Las Vegas in 1992 after the Rodney King verdict. Wright describes how the riots lasted three to four days, and he thought they were instigated by people who came from California and Los Angeles. He said that the shopping center in the Westside burned, there were firebombs, and white drivers were attacked and beaten up while the police did little to control it. Wright was known as a photographer and a newspaper offered him $50 per hour to take pictures of the riots. After some consideration, her turned this offer down because he believed it would be dangerous for him with a camera.
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Jimmy Gay discusses racism in Las Vegas before and after World War II. He says that prior to WWII, there wasn't a lot of prejudice, and there were only a few African American families. After WWII, he says that the influx of soldiers returning and the migration of Black families from the South led to Las Vegas becoming the "Mississippi of the West."
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Mabel Hoggard discusses how she came to live in Las Vegas and her employment history. She was on her way to Los Angeles and stopped in Las Vegas to visit relatives in 1944. She was offered a job as a secretary at the USO (United Service Organizations) and her relatives persuaded her to stay and live in Las Vegas with them instead of moving to California like she had planned. After working for the USO from 1944 to 1946 she applied to be a teacher. She had been a teacher before but lost her job because she refused to contribute part of her salary to a campaign fund. She faced some racially-based opposition when she first started teaching in Las Vegas but Maude Frazier advocated for her and the members of the school board renewed her contract after her first year, and she said she didn't "have any trouble" after that first year.
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LaVerne Ligon discusses auditioning for the show Hallelujah Hollywood at the new MGM. She auditioned for Bob Mackie and Donn Arden, who wanted her to be topless in the show. She refused. Three weeks later, Donn Arden called her and said that she had changed his mind and he really wanted her in the show and she didn't have to go topless. In fact the entire line of Black dancers that he was putting together for the show did not have to go topless.
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Full interview audio with Mike and Sallie Gordon in March 1977 in which they discuss arriving in Las Vegas and their business enterprises.
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