LAS VEGAS (AP) — A boarding house that welcomed black customers when they were barred from staying at Las Vegas hotels during the segregation era has been added to the National Register of Historic Places.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that entertainers such as Nat King Cole and Sammy Davis Jr. were offered a place to stay at guest house north of downtown run by Genevieve Harrison.
She established the boarding house in 1942, when racial segregation was in full effect across much of the nation and black people had few places where they were welcome to stay the night while on the road.
Such boarding houses began to lose their importance as the civil rights movement grew and a few hotels and motels began to appear in the historically black Westside neighborhood.