Many of the remaining Las Vegas civil rights pioneers gathered at the Westside School last week for the premiere of a documentary that chronicles Southern Nevada’s African-American community.
“African Americans: The Las Vegas Experience” covers milestones such as the desegregation of Las Vegas resorts and rioting that wracked the city’s black neighborhoods in the 1960s.
UNLV oral historian Claytee White was at the premiere. She told KNPR's State of Nevada that she hopes it prompts people to hold onto and share the history they might have in their own homes.
“I took away how necessary that history is to preserve. I took away also what an impact it has and I think now we’re going to be able to ask the community to share more resources, more photographs, more documentation of the community itself," White said.
At the premiere, Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman recounted her astonishment at the segregation she found when moving to the city in 1964 and congratulated those who brought about change.
White said while some things had started to be integrated when the Goodman's moved here there were several areas of the city that still hadn't changed.
In fact, White said it wasn't until the 70s that elementary schools, housing and jobs on the Strip became integrated.
The hourlong film was produced by Vegas PBSand released as part of the celebration of Black History Month.
Tom Axtell is the general manager for Vegas PBS. He said the whole documentary wouldn't have come together without the help of the UNLV University Library.
“It tells a story for people who want to watch but then it can drive people back into the collection who want to pursue this for their own purposes,” he said.
As part of the effort, Vegas PBS will be hiring teachers to create a curriculum for middle and high school teachers that uses many components from the documentary and UNLV's special collections.
Michelle Light is the director of special collections at UNLV. She said providing the materials for the documentary was a combined effort of nine different institutions.
“We had a combined effort to collect the histories," she said, "The library digitized a lot of this history and made available a web portal where you could go see the full transcripts of the oral histories, you could find many of the photographs, from institutions including special collections”
Light grew up in Las Vegas and she said the documentary gave her a different perspective of the city she was raised in. She hopes other people will see it and get the same appreciation for the men and women in Southern Nevada who worked to make the city a better place.
The film airs on Vegas PBS, Channel 10, at 10 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 23, and at noon on Sunday, Feb. 26. It will be available online here after Feb. 24.
Among those attending the showing at the Westside School were longtime black activists Ida Gaines, Verlia Davis Hoggard, Theron and Naomi Goynes, Jarmilla McMillan-Arnold, and Hannah Brown.
Claytee White, UNLV oral historian; Tom Axtell, Vegas PBS general manager; Michelle Light, director of special collections, UNLV University Libraries