When Clinton Wright moved to Las Vegas in 1959, he found a community as segregated as any he encountered growing up in the South.
Unable to make use of his college degree in industrial and mechanical education, he landed a job as a photographer for the Las Vegas Voice, a newspaper that served the city’s black community. For decades he captured everyday life as well as the dramatic changes wrought by the civil rights upheaval of the 1960s.
“The work that I did working for the newspaper was to show what interested people were doing to help the community to be something more than just an ordinary community,” Wright told KNPR's State of Nevada.
His photos were a large visual element in the recent Vegas PBS documentary “African Americans: The Las Vegas Experience.” A collection of Wright’s work is on display at the historic Westside School until April 24 and then will be on extended display at UNLV's Lied Library’s Third Floor Gallery.
Aaron Mayes is the curator for visual materials at UNLV Special Collections. He said Wright's work is set apart because it captures the beautiful subtleties of life.
“It is evidence that shows that naysayers are incorrect in believing that there was no business there," he said.
Barbara Tabach is an oral historian at UNLV Special Collection. She first heard about Wright's work through one of his nephews. She contacted several times about acquiring his photographs. He never said 'no,' but it took him some time to agree to it.
Clinton Wright, self portrait
Photographer Clinton Wright and Claytee White, director of the UNLV University Libraries Oral History Research Center, tour an exhibit of Wright's work at the Westside School.
Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman looks at display of Clinton Wright's work at the Westside School.
“I had a chance to think about how important it was for them to be in a place like UNLV, where, in their collection, it could show such an important part of the development of the community,” Wright said.
Tabach said UNLV would love to hear from other people who might have pictures from the same era.
Click here for information on Special Collections and how to contact them.
Clinton Wright, former news photographer; Aaron Mayes, UNLV Special Collections curator for visual materials; Barbara Tabach, oral historian at UNLV Special Collections