University of Nevada
Oral History Program
Mail Stop 324
Reno, NV 89557-0099
775/784-6932
Fax: 775/784-1365
E-mail: ohp@unr.nevada.edu
Hours: 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday.
Room 109 of the Mack Social Science Building on the University of Nevada, Reno campus
Housing and Employment With the construction of Boulder 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 Boulder 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. During the 1940s, segregation was the norm for race relations in Las Vegas. With the building of the Basic Magnesium, Incorporated (BMI) plant in 1942-1943, a great number of blacks came to the Las Vegas area to work at the plant. Whole towns from Louisiana and Arizona moved into what is now Henderson to work at the plant, bringing with them their racial attitudes. Segregationist practices at Basic Magnesium included having separate toilet facilities and limiting blacks to menial positions. As part of employment at the plant, the federal government built housing to accommodate the influx of people, but the owners did not provide blacks with housing until after the all-white Victory Village was built. Carver Park was constructed for the black workers, but by the time it was completed, many of the black employees had already settled on the Westside in Las Vegas. Blacks fought to end discrimination at the plant through the unions and other organizations, and this led to a strike of two hundred black workers in 1943. Although not successful, it did show that blacks were going to continue to press for equal opportunities in the employment arena. Many blacks remained in Las Vegas after World War II ended, and in the 1950s the NAACP’s local branch—led by Dr. Charles West, Dr. James McMillan, Lubertha Johnson, Woodrow Wilson, and Clarence Ray—fought to end segregation in employment and housing throughout the area. Across the state, this fight was carried on in Reno as well, by such people as Eddie Scott, Howard Gloyd, and Clyde Mathews in the 1950s and early 1960s and by Barbara Bennett during the 1960s and 1970s. It was during the 1950s that the Las Vegas NAACP developed many of the tactics that it used in later desegregating the Strip, using as its primary approach the boycott of businesses that catered to the black community but did not employ blacks. Boycotts were successful in opening up better job opportunies, but even as blacks were now able to find better paying jobs and afford a better lifestyle, many were still not allowed to live anywhere other than the Westside nor enjoy the accommodations of the hotel-casinos being built on the Las Vegas Strip. Discrimination in lending was another issue. Throughout the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, the NAACP in Nevada tried to change the loan practices of area banks so that blacks could buy homes outside segregated areas. In Las Vegas, this led Woodrow Wilson to create the Westside Credit Union to provide the necessary loans to buy homes not just in the Westside but also throughout the greater metropolitan area. 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. The Moulin Rouge Agreement, negotiated in 1960, was a result of this tactic and eventually opened up the Strip to black customers and workers. Employment discrimination in the private sector ended in the mid-1960s, and by the 1970s, housing had also been desegregated. |
