University of Nevada
Oral History Program
Mail Stop 0324
Reno, NV 89557-0324
Phone: 775/784-6932
Fax: 775/784-1365
ohp@unr.nevada.edu
Due to recent budget and staffing cuts, hours may vary. Please call.
(All oral histories are available through the Knowledge Center's Special Collections Department, and some circulate as well.)
Education In the 1930s and 1940s, the schools in Las Vegas were segregated at the elementary and junior high school levels, with the lone high school being integrated. The Westside neighborhood, which developed into the primary black residential and business community in Las Vegas during the 1930s and 1940s, had only one school, and that school was in substandard condition. As the black population grew, other schools were built in the Westside, but they still lacked the resources of white schools. The Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954 gave a boost to the efforts of the black community to end segregation in Las Vegas schools. When the decision did not lead to timely integration, the president of the local branch of the NAACP, Charles Kellar, filed suit in federal court in 1968, and that led to negotiations with the school district to desegregate the schools, which occurred only in 1972. The final plan called for extensive busing of students and the establishment of sixth-grade centers, which were schools in the Westside that white students were bused to during the sixth grade. Black students were bused out of the Westside to predominantly white schools in grades one through five, and the high schools in Las Vegas were integrated. Many in the black community were not satisfied with the plan but considered it the best possible solution at the time. The effort to desegregate the Las Vegas school system was led by Charles Kellar, Woodrow Wilson, Lubertha Johnson, the NAACP, and Mabel Hoggard, who was the first licensed black teacher in Las Vegas and a future superintendent of schools. |
