Civil Rights in Nevada

On February 11, 1959 Governor Grant Sawyer signed a proclamation designating that week as Black History Week in Nevada. During the American bicentennial of 1976, Black History Week became Black History Month – a tradition that continues over thirty years later. In honor of Black History Month and in celebration of the achievements and contributions of African-Americans in our state, the ONE has created a Civil Rights in Nevada exhibit.

The exhibit captures unique images from the struggle for Civil Rights in Nevada, while the captions highlight the voices of historic Nevadans who lived through and experienced the era. For greater context and entries dedicated to the people and events seen in the exhibit, please visit ONE’s collection of articles on African American History and Civil Rights.

This exhibit was created in partnership with a variety of projects and archival repositories and is just the first stop in a tour of Civil Rights history in Nevada. A majority of the images and text have been provided by the University of Nevada Oral History Program (UNOHP). Their project, Nevada Voices, brings to the public transcripts, audio excerpts, photographs, context statements, and brief discussions about three major topics – including the Civil Rights Movement – from over 80,000 pages of transcripts. Much of what you find in the ONE exhibit is developed in much greater detail on their website. We strongly recommend reading the more complete interview transcripts from which we have taken our excerpts. Also, UNOHP has books on the Civil Rights experience in Nevada – more specifically Hang Tough!, which details Governor Grant Sawyer’s years with state and national politics, and Fighting Back: A Life in the Struggle for Civil Rights, which is a memoir of James B. McMillan’s life fighting against racial discrimination. Both books can be found at the UNOHP bookstore.

The ONE exhibit also benefits from materials provided by the Oral History Research Center at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and the Special Collections Departments at the University of Nevada-Reno Library and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. There is information to be found on the memories of people who lived in Las Vegas in the early years, women who were Las Vegas showgirls, and a group of friends who experienced school desegregation in Las Vegas in 1964 (Rose Hamilton & Friends).

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Photograph courtesy of the Nevada State Museum, Las Vegas.

With the construction of Hoover Dam outside of Las Vegas, segregation in employment and housing became a focal point for the civil rights movement in Nevada. During the 1930s, the dam project was the major source of employment for the area. At first blacks were denied employment due to race, and it was only through the intervention of the Las Vegas NAACP branch that they were allowed to work at Hoover Dam. Even then, blacks were systematically excluded from certain types of jobs and housing, and it was during this time that the Westside began to develop as the primary black residential and business community in Las Vegas.

Text courtesy of the University of Nevada Oral History Program

Photograph courtesy of Lloyd Gill Collection, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Library.

Image of Mr. Bruno’s daughter in Bruno’s Liquor Store, Westside, Las Vegas, NV.

“Overt discrimination became a way of life in the forties. Industrial mobilization during World War II not only stimulated additional black migration, but also contributed to increased racial tension and resulted in widespread segregationist policies in the Las Vegas Valley. . .Most of the three thousand or more blacks that lived in Southern Nevada in 1944 were denied any but the most menial of jobs in casinos and in the plants. . .Because of these restrictive practices, black entrepreneurship thrived, and the community formed its own business core on Jackson Street (Avenue) with casinos, restaurants, beauty parlors, barbershops, and other business concerns.”

Text courtesy of Claytee D. White, Director of the Oral History Research Center at UNLV.

Photograph courtesy of the University of Nevada Oral History Program.

Clarence Ray (1900-1993) began his career as a professional gambler in California and in 1925 moved to Las Vegas to continue his work until his retirement from the Dunes in 1983. He helped found the Nevada NAACP in 1928 and later the Nevada Voters League.

“During this time, blacks didn't go downtown, and quite a number of whites didn't come over here to the Westside. I've heard people call Las Vegas the ‘Mississippi of the West.’ I think that came from the black entertainers, because people in the big hotels would hire all the black entertainers they could get, but they wouldn't let them stay at those hotels. That started them coming over to the Westside to stay. Mrs. Shaw took care of a lot of people who stayed here, and then there was a lady by the name of Simpson, who built a big house that had eight or ten rooms that she rented.” – Clarence Ray

Clarence Ray was interviewed by Helen Blue and Jamie Coughtry in 1989 and 1991.

Text courtesy of the University of Nevada Oral History Program.

Photograph courtesy of the University of Nevada Oral History Program.

Lubertha Johnson was born in Ackerman, Mississippi, and moved first to Chicago and later to California before arriving in Las Vegas in 1943 to work at Carver Park, an all-black housing project. She was a member and president of the Las Vegas NAACP and started Operation Independence, an anti-poverty program. She remained active in the black community until her death.

“I think we have to realize that people who have the power are people to whom we must appeal for support. It's the only way that we can really win, and we did get the support of a good many people; otherwise we could not have made the progress that we have. In order to get the equal rights law, to get the housing law, and to generally change the patterns of discrimination, we had to have, and we did get, the support of some of the people in authority.” – Lubertha Johnson

Lubertha Johnson was interviewed by Jamie Coughtry in 1988.

Text courtesy of the University of Nevada Oral History Program.

Photograph courtesy of the University of Nevada Oral History Program.

Lubertha Johnson on Education: “In Las Vegas, the situation was very similar to the South, even though there were no laws such as existed in the South. Black schools were mostly dilapidated and built in a different manner from the schools in the other areas of the city, and usually it appeared that teachers were not up to what teachers were in other parts of the city. It was always stated that the poorest teachers were there. I don't know whether they were or not, but this was the attitude; this was what we felt about it. Most of the black people who migrated to Las Vegas were from the South and were accustomed to this; however, there were always people who complained. These other schools were not close enough to West Las Vegas, and the business of community schools has always been used as a reason why we had segregation. Now, the schools here were not segregated legally as they were in the South, but it was easy enough to keep the system alive, because hardly any black people lived in any other area [than the Westside].”

Lubertha Johnson was interviewed by Jamie Coughtry in 1987 to 1988.

Text courtesy of the University of Nevada Oral History Program.

Photograph courtesy of the University of Nevada Oral History Program.

Morton Saiger (1903-1997) came to Las Vegas in 1942 to work at the Last Frontier. In his capacity as executive host, he dealt with all of the black entertainers who performed at the casino.

“When I was at the Last Frontier, before working the lights, if we had some black entertainers, I had to pick them up at 6:00 to bring them down to the show. We had rooming houses in the Westside, which was known as the colored neighborhood at that time, and we roomed them over there. Then I had to take them back after midnight, right after the second show, because there was no other transportation over to the Westside.

"When the weather was nice, it was beautiful, but after a rain, my station wagon used to sink in there because there was no paved roads in the Westside. We had the entertainers such as the black people—Sammy Davis Jr. and his father and uncle, the Mastin Trio. Ted Lewis had black assistants. So many of the black . . . Arthur Lee Simpkins, they all worked here, but they could not stay in the hotel. It was unfortunate, but that was the law; they could not stay in this hotel or in any other. I remember Eddy Anderson, ‘Rochester’ from Jack Benny's fame. I was so hurt that I couldn't see straight, because this is the way I was treated in Poland, as a Jew, so I just ached. I'm telling the truth.

"The Will Mastin Trio was through about 10:00, and at 12:00 they had to go on again. Instead of going to the Westside, we had in the back of the kitchen, on the outside, a picnic table. I had to bring out sandwiches for them to eat there. They couldn't even eat in the kitchen. Now, that was criminal. Thank God that the law has changed.” – Morton Saiger

Morton Saiger was interviewed by R.T. King in 1985.

Text courtesy of the University of Nevada Oral History Program.

Photograph courtesy of the University of Nevada Oral History Program.

Yvonne “Todd” Davis (1932-2005) worked at Harolds Club as a dealer from 1954-1970.

“I think one of the most embarrassing things I ever saw in my life happened after the Civil Rights Movement, when blacks were allowed in the clubs. I was over at Harrah’s, and this black man came in and ordered a drink. The bartender finally served him, and the bartender stood right in front of him until he finished the drink. Then he took the glass, and he broke it in the sink. I just turned around and walked out.

"Even though Harolds Club was guilty, too, it’s hard to believe that actually went on in this town. Sammy Davis, in his book, said that his big thing was when he played the Strip, that he couldn’t even stay in the hotels. And he stayed away, and he always wanted to be able to walk in the front doors. The Mills Brothers couldn’t stay in the hotel. They couldn’t eat in the restaurant. The only one that got away with it at the Riverside (in Reno) was Billy Daniels.

"Cab Calloway was allowed to play in Harolds Club. He caused so much trouble and was so loud and argumentative that they finally decided it was all right. He wasn’t here that often, anyway, but when he was here, he was allowed to play.” – Yvonne "Todd" Davis

Yvonne Davis was interviewed by Dwayne Kling in 1997 to 2000.

Text courtesy of the University of Nevada Oral History Program.

Photograph courtesy of the University of Nevada Oral History Program.

Milos “Sharkey” Begovich (1926-2002) worked for Bill Harrah’s Lake Tahoe casino in various positions from 1956 until 1963. He later owned his own casino, Sharkey's Nugget, in Gardnerville, Nevada.

“The first time Louis Armstrong came to the lake [Lake Tahoe], Harrah’s had one door in the back of the kitchen on the little club. And I think Louis had about seventeen people in his entourage—between the band and a sound man and a sound tech and this and that and the other—and he came through the back door several times while he was getting ready to do his show. You know, they always came in and had rehearsals and everything. So I was with Bill Harrah and Malcolm Farnsworth (Red Farnsworth), and I said something about Louis coming through the kitchen. They didn’t allow blacks in the clubs then. They used to go up and ask them to leave—I mean just outright. Not very many of them tried to come in, but the ones that did, they asked them to leave. So Red Farnsworth said to me, ‘Would you go tell Louis that Mr. Harrah would feel honored if he would use the front door?’ What could I do but just go down and find Louis and tell him? I went down, and I said, ‘Louis, Mr. Harrah would really be honored if you would use the front door when you come in and out of the club.’ Louis called everybody ‘Cat.’ He says, ‘Cat, that’s awful nice. I really appreciate that, but you tell Mr. Harrah that old Louis is still going to use the back door.’ And he continued to use it. That was in the late fifties sometime. I think a lounge act called the Treniers kind of broke the barrier a little bit, but security thought nothing of going up and asking somebody colored to please leave. They just weren’t allowed in there. And everybody accepted it and left. I don’t ever remember an incident.” – Milos Begovich

Milos Begovich was interviewed by Dwayne Kling in 1997 to 1998.

Text courtesy of the University of Nevada Oral History Program.

Photograph courtesy of the University of Nevada Oral History Program.

Image from a mid-to-late 1950s NAACP meeting where hotel desegregation was being discussed.

“Many black workers stayed in Las Vegas after the BMI plant closed in 1944, but they found very limited employment opportunities. Ebony magazine reported in 1954 that ‘Few Negroes. . .have ever been hired as cooks, bartenders, waiters, dealers, or bellhops at the plush hotels and gambling casinos.’ (March, 1954, p. 53). That is, Blacks were not even hired in Las Vegas for jobs with which they had long been identified elsewhere and were not allowed to participate in the postwar boom in gambling.”

“A similar pattern of discrimination was found in northern Nevada. Alice Smith, one of the founders of the Reno-Sparks Branch of the NAACP, remembered a sign in a restaurant on east Fourth Street which read: ‘No Indians, dogs or Negroes allowed.’ A barbershop in Reno’s Golden Hotel would cut the hair of a Black man only after dark, when the shades were drawn. . .In the late 1950s and 1960s NAACP branches in Las Vegas, Reno-Sparks and Hawthorne, aided by a few Whites, intensified their assault on discrimination.”

Text courtesy of Bertha M. Mullins, Elmer R. Rusco, and Angela D. Taylor.

Photograph courtesy of the University of Nevada Oral History Program.

Woodrow Wilson (1915-1999) was born in Morton, Mississippi, and moved to Las Vegas in 1942 to work at the Basic Magnesium Plant in Henderson. He was a member and president of the NAACP in the 1950s and 1960s, and he started the Westside Credit Union in 1951. In 1967, he became the first elected black legislator in Nevada history, and he served until 1971.

“When I was in the Assembly, I introduced several areas of emphasis: my position as far as labor was concerned; employment within the hotel structure; also my desire to eliminate as much discrimination and segregation as I possibly could within Nevada, and to introduce legislation that would improve the situation at our penal institutions and social welfare areas.” – Woodrow Wilson

Wilson was interviewed by Jamie Coughtry in 1988 to 1990.

Text courtesy of the University of Nevada Oral History Program.

Photograph courtesy of the University of Nevada Oral History Program.

James McMillan (1917-1999) was born in Aberdeen, Mississippi, and moved north with his family to Detroit when he was five. After graduating from dental school, he served in both World War Two and the Korean War, and he moved to Las Vegas in 1953, becoming the first black dentist in Nevada. He was a member of the Las Vegas branch of the NAACP and served as its president from 1954 to 1961, and he was also a founder of the Nevada Voters League. McMillan served as local branch president of the NAACP during the dramatic ending of public accommodations discrimination in Las Vegas in 1960.

Text courtesy of the University of Nevada Oral History Program and Elmer Rusco.

Photograph courtesy of the University of Nevada Oral History Program.

Image of the March 1960 meeting at the Moulin Rouge hotel-casino (Westside, Las Vegas, NV) to end segregation on the Las Vegas Strip. Dr. James B. McMillan is at the head of the table, flanked by Mayor Oran Gragson (l.) and Hank Greenspun (r.).

“In 1960 Dr. James McMillan, the president of the Las Vegas NAACP, formed an executive board outside of the regular executive board of the Las Vegas branch of the NAACP, which consisted of all of the ex-presidents. They were the policy-making group on the Strip situation; they would feed back to the regular organization all of their information, and they did all the planning for our thrust to end segregation on the Strip. . . I felt that it really hadn't been easy, because we sacrificed a lot. It was a commitment made by the people involved. We sacrificed a lot of time, a lot of money, and a lot of effort and a lot of worry. In no terms could it have been described as an easy battle, because when you go up against the power structure that existed at that time in Las Vegas, it wasn't easy. After the agreement, I thought that we would have more resistance from the hotels in committing themselves to integration, in some ways trying to prevent it from happening. But I thought that it went very well, and I was surprised that it did produce a true conversion from total segregation to integration.” – Woodrow Wilson

Wilson was interviewed by Jamie Coughtry in 1988 to 1990.

Text and photograph courtesy of the University of Nevada Oral History Program.

Photograph courtesy of UNLV Special Collections.

By the end of the 1940s, the gaming industry was the major source of employment in Las Vegas, but segregation limited blacks to the most menial jobs on the Strip and denied them access to the hotel-casinos as customers. The black community in the 1950s sought an end to racial discrimination using boycotts and demonstrations, which culminated in 1960 with the Moulin Rouge Agreement.

The Moulin Rouge Agreement occurred on March 25th, 1960, as part of negotiations between the black community, Las Vegas business leaders, and local and state government officials to avert a demonstration scheduled for the next day on the Las Vegas Strip. The agreement required the gaming industry to stop discriminating against blacks in employment and to open hotel-casinos to blacks as customers. As a result of the settlement, the gaming industry expanded employment opportunities for blacks to include the positions of dealers, floor managers, and personnel managers. Blacks also formed teams to test access to the hotel-casinos. A few casinos, such as the Sal Sagev and Binion's, did not participate in the agreement until later.

Dr James McMillan was the president of the Las Vegas NAACP at the time and acted as the voice of the black community in the negotiations, while other NAACP members at the meeting included Dave Hoggard, Woodrow Wilson, Bob Bailey, Lubertha Johnson, and Donald Clark. Hank Greenspun of the Las Vegas Sun acted as mediator, and Las Vegas Mayor Oran Gragson and Nevada Governor Grant Sawyer were also instrumental in achieving the agreement. Oscar Crozier, the black owner of the El Morocco, had connections to the gaming industry and played an important role as a liaison between the NAACP and the hotel-casino owners.

Text courtesy of the University of Nevada Oral History Program.

Photograph courtesy of the University of Nevada Oral History Program.

Image of opening night at the Moulin Rouge Hotel, Las Vegas, NV 1955. L. to r.: Lubertha Johnson, unidentified, Louise Leggroan, Mr. and Mrs. Eddie Lofton, unidentified.

In 1955, the Moulin Rouge hotel casino, the first integrated upscale establishment in Las Vegas and one that rivaled venues on the Strip and downtown, was built on the outskirts of the Westside. Joe Louis, one of the most famous heavyweight champions in history, served as greeter, the line of black dancers was featured on the cover of Life Magazine, and the nightly crowds were peppered with Hollywood’s elite. The above image was taken on opening night and includes well-known Nevadans Lubertha Johnson, Louise Leggroan, and Mr. and Mrs. Eddie Lofton.

Text courtesy of Claytee D. White, Director of the Oral History Research Center at UNLV.

Photograph courtesy of the University of Nevada Oral History Program.

Image of Calvin Washington (far left) running the crap game at the El Morocco Club on the Las Vegas (NV) Westside, the final night before its 1954 closing; standing next to him is Cleo Johns.

An image from the final night of gaming at the El Morocco Club before the doors shut in 1954. The El Morocco was rebuilt by black owner Oscar Crozier shortly after its closing, and he operated the club until about 1964. Crozier had connections to the gaming industry and played an important role as a liaison between the NAACP and the hotel-casino owners.

Text courtesy of the University of Nevada Oral History Program.

Photograph courtesy of the University of Nevada Oral History Program.

This photograph was taken at a 1957 meeting of leaders in Las Vegas. L. to R.: Charles Kellar, Woodrow Wilson, Clarence Ray, Jim Anderson, and Reverend Davis are some of the more significant names in the fight for civil rights in Nevada – men who fought for equality in education, housing, employment, and daily life.

Photograph courtesy of Donald M. Clark Collection, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Library.

Image of Donald M. Clark, Charles Kellar, and William Bailey – Westside (Las Vegas, NV) businessmen who met with Governor Grant Sawyer in 1961 to discuss employment of blacks in the gaming industry.

In the 1960s, the focus of employment discrimination in Las Vegas shifted to the gaming industry. Casinos were then the major source of employment in the area, yet blacks were limited to menial jobs. With the growth of the tourist industry in Las Vegas, hotel-casinos became more sensitive to boycotts and marches, and the NAACP used the threat of demonstrations during important events to force the gaming industry to end discrimination in employment and open access to public accommodations.

Text courtesy of the University of Nevada Oral History Program.

Photograph courtesy of Special Collections, University of Nevada-Reno Library.

Image of Donald Clark, Bob Davis, Leo Jones, Charles Kellar, George McNeal, Eddie Scott, Rev. Prentiss Walker, Joe Williams, and Ulysses Woodard, NAACP members, at the El Capitan in Hawthorne, Nevada on January 27, 1962.

While the exact context of the image is unclear, this 1962 NAACP meeting in Hawthorne is most likely one of the many protests that were held at the El Capitan during this time in an attempt to draw attention to the discriminatory practices there. As Dr. James B. McMillan explains: “The El Capitan in Hawthorne was notorious for unyielding segregation and discrimination against blacks, but it wasn't alone; it just happened to get in the papers. All over the state there were blatant segregationists who didn't think that they were doing anything wrong at all. They felt that their establishments were their own, and that they could do what they wanted to whoever came in. Reno was particularly bad—segregation and discrimination were much worse there than in Las Vegas.”

Text courtesy of the University of Nevada Oral History Program.

Photograph courtesy of Special Collections, University of Nevada, Reno.

“Among our legislators. . .there was little sympathy for civil rights, and I had difficulty even finding someone to introduce the bill, which wound up dying in a senate committee. Fortunately, Maude Frazier had the guts to sponsor a second civil rights bill that, while less comprehensive in its objectives, stood a slightly better chance of passing. . . Two days after my state-of-the-state message she introduced AB122, a bill which proposed to outlaw discrimination in public employment and forbid all contractors who did business with the state to discriminate on the grounds of race, national origin, religion, sex, whatever. There was some resistance, particularly in the senate, but the bill eventually passed, and I signed it into law in March.” – Gov. Grant Sawyer

Gov. Grant Sawyer (1918-1996) was interviewed by Gary E. Elliot in 1991 and 1993.

Text courtesy of the University of Nevada Oral History Program.

Photograph courtesy of Special Collections, University of Nevada, Reno.

James Slattery (1907-1986) served Northern Nevada as a state senator from 1954-1970 and was a well-known conservative who often opposed civil rights legislation.

“I slept in college and high school with colored athletes. I go to colored peoples' homes and eat, but when it comes to passing legislation that you have to accept them, or he has to accept them, then I can't. I can accept them in my own mind. But there’s no way in the world that I can pass a piece of legislation to make anybody else accept anything, because you can't do it by law. This is proven in the South. It's proven in the state of Nevada. They want to bus them now. I can't go for busing where you got a colored district in Vegas and . . . . Or take Los Angeles. You got to bus them twenty-five miles to go to school. This is going to break every school district in the nation.” – James Slattery

James Slattery was interviewed by Mary Ellen Glass in 1970.

Text courtesy of the University of Nevada Oral History Program.

Photograph courtesy of the University of Nevada Oral History Program.

Governor Grant Sawyer meeting with President John F. Kennedy in the Oval Office.

Governor Grant Sawyer (1918-1996) began his distinguished public service career as the District Attorney in Elko in 1950. He served as a University Regent, before serving as governor for two terms (1958-1966). Sawyer was dedicated to civil rights and improving the lives of blacks in Nevada, and during his administration, much of the important civil rights legislation in Nevada was passed.

Text courtesy of the University of Nevada Oral History Program.

Photograph courtesy of Special Collections, University of Nevada, Reno.

Governor Grant Sawyer with members of the NAACP, including Dorothy Cager, William Bailey, Charles Kellar (Las Vegas branch), Clara Fells, Tarea Hall Pittman (regional field secretary), James Anderson (Las Vegas branch), and Samuel Baynes.

“My inaugural address articulated my feelings about civil rights and called for action. My address to the first session of the legislature made the same plea, and I moved immediately to get legislation started to create a human relations commission with the authority to investigate civil rights abuses, and the power to take corrective action. To me it was clear that state government had a duty to ensure that all of Nevada's citizens had equal rights, and to do so without delay.” – Governor Grant Sawyer

Governor Grant Sawyer (1918-1996) was interviewed by Gary E. Elliot in 1991 and 1993.

Text courtesy of the University of Nevada Oral History Program.

Photograph courtesy of Nevada State Library and Archives.

Governor Grant Sawyer meeting with NAACP leaders and other civil rights activists at the Capitol Building in Carson City.

“Even though I was highly motivated to extend civil rights to Nevada's black citizens, without constant urging from people who were directly involved in the movement I might not have been as committed as I was to advancing the cause. We got as far as we did in such a relatively short period of time due in large measure to help—not just help, but forceful help—from members of the Nevada NAACP, whose leadership kept things moving. Their initiative, energy, and resolve enabled us to introduce and pass civil rights legislation before Congress or Jack Kennedy had taken any position on the issue, putting Nevada in the forefront of a social reform issue on which it had long trailed the nation.” – Governor Grant Sawyer

Governor Grant Sawyer was interviewed by Gary E. Elliott in 1991 and 1993.

Text courtesy of the University of Nevada Oral History Program.

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Civil Rights in Nevada

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Civil Rights in Nevada

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