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.)
Legislation Legislation in Nevada to end racial discrimination and give blacks civil rights did not begin until the 1950s. The first effort came in 1953, when George Rudiak presented a bill to the assembly to open public accommodations to blacks. The bill failed, and no other legislative attempts occurred until Grant Sawyer’s election as the Governor of Nevada in 1958. Sawyer’s support gave new momentum to efforts that put Nevada ahead of the nation in terms of civil rights, including Assembly Bill 122, sponsored by Maude Frazier. It was the first legislation that addressed racial discrimination in Nevada, and when it passed in 1959, it ended discrimination in public employment and government contracts. With support from both the black and white communities, numerous pieces of legislation were passed that ended racial discrimination in private employment and public accommodations. In 1961, the Nevada Equal Rights Commission emerged from this effort, and in 1965, Nevada passed its own version of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, effectively ending discrimination in public life (with the exception of housing). Woodrow Wilson addressed housing discrimination when he was elected as the first black Nevada Assemblyman in 1967. He proposed legislation in 1968 for an open-housing law in Nevada, which was finally passed in 1971, and by the mid 1970s, legal racial discrimination in all areas of life in Nevada had ended. |
