Daniel Walsh

Hist 387
Prof. Petrik
12/12/2009

The Dixie’s West: Las Vegas in Turmoil

When most observers think of pre-civil rights, they think of the

Jim Crow laws, discrimination, and segregation that was so prevalent to

southern states. The South is where these problems are thought to be

mainly but that was not the case. Nevada also had many of the same

African American segregation problems in the urban areas as the

South did, especially in Las Vegas. Historians have argued that Las

Vegas was a transplanted Deep South in the West due to the manner

in which the city approached segregation and racial discrimination.

Las Vegas started out as a railroad town just like a few other

modern metropolitan area of today. The first African Americans that

came to Las Vegas came with the railroads. At first it was only a

handful that came as maintenance crew workers. By 1910, there were

a fewer than forty African Americans in Las Vegas. The Las Vegas Land

& Water Company Vice President, Walter Bracken, was fearful that

integrated housing might encourage more minority residence. He also

feared that integrated housing would discourage white interest in the

new railroad town. So he tried to confine blacks to Block 17 which was

next to the brothels and taverns on Block 16.1 Las Vegas, in its early

1
Eugene Moehring, Resort city in the sunbelt: Las Vegas 1930-1970 (University of Nevada
Press,1989):173

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 Daniel Walsh
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days, could not be thought of as more than a re-fueling stop on the

Salt Lake –Los Angeles rail corridor.2 There was little recorded racial

tensions prior to the 1930s, when the Boulder, later re-named the

Hoover Dam, was contracted. The Federal government contracted the

dam out to the “Six Companies” a construction conglomerate. The “Six

Companies” had an unwritten policy of hiring whites only. This blatant

discrimination toward African Americans aggravated many black

workers who where trying to get an opportunity to secure a higher-

paying job. Their irritation led to the creation of the Colored Citizens’

Labor and Protective Association of Las Vegas in May of 1931.3

The first goal of the organization was to desegregate the dam

project; they were also trying to fight the growing discrimination of

black laborers in all trades of the area.4 With the dam as the main

priority of the association, it requested the presence of a San Francisco

NAACP representative, Leland Hawkins, who conferred with local

officials, and tried to fix the discrimination problems. This did not help

anything at all, prompting multiple visits from the NAACP regional

representative, William Pickens. Finally, Mayor Erine Cragin and other

2
. Orleck Annelise, Storming Caesars Palace: How Black Mothers fought Their Own
War on Poverty.( Beacon Press Boston, 2005). 42

3
Eugene Moehring, Resort city in the sunbelt: Las Vegas 1930-1970 (University of Nevada Press,1989);
174.

4
ibid; 174

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 Daniel Walsh
Hist 387
Prof. Petrik
12/12/2009
government leaders tried to diffuse the trouble by letting one of

Nevada’s Senators, Tasker Oddie, know of the job discrimination. The

Senator along with the help of the NAACP pressured Interior Secretary

Ray Wilbur to force changes in the unwritten hiring policies of the “Six

Companies. Even with all of the effort to get equal job opportunity for

Las Vegas African Americans, the “Six Companies” only hired forty-four

blacks by 1936 compared to the more than twenty thousand whites.5

These numbers shows the discrimination against African

Americans; the construction of the Hoover Dam was during the height

of the Great Depression. The some twenty thousand white workers

were primarily from the South; they, like their African American

counterparts, were looking for higher-paying jobs. With the influx of

the southern workers they came with the mindset of the Jim Crow laws

that were so prevalent where they had come from. They expected that

it would be the same in Bolder and Las Vegas as it was in the South.6

The stock market crash of 1929 created massive job loss

throughout the country during the Great Depression. Nevada, one of

the least populated states in the country, had always needed a way to

make revenue and have a functioning economy. Because the New Deal

program was not put into action until 1933, the state needed a way to
5
Perry Kaufman, The Best City of them all: A history of Las Vegas , 1930-1960. ( PhD diss., University of
California Santa Barbara, 1974); 330.
6
Eugene Moehring, Resort city in the sunbelt: Las Vegas 1930-1970 (University of Nevada Press,1989);
175.

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 Daniel Walsh
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save its economy. The state tried to create revenue prior to the crash

by legalizing gambling in 1869 when the state legislature overrode the

Governor’s veto. Gambling first became popular in mining camps and

towns in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Early in Las

Vegas, gambling was restricted to only one section of the city, Blocks

16 and 17, just off of Fremont Street. This area of the city also

tolerated houses of prostitution. To combat the legality of these sinful

activities, churches, educational leaders, women’s groups and

reformists pressured Nevada legislature to outlaw gambling in 1910.

Regardless of the ban on gambling, many of the saloons offered

gaming in their backrooms.7 The backroom gambling was similar to the

speak easies during Prohibition. With the passage of “The Wide Open

Gambling Bill of 1931,” gambling was legal once again; however the

clubs were pushing for more customers. At this time, a number of the

clubs were also taverns and would take anyone’s, even minorities’,

dollars to keep them in business. As bad luck would have it for the

minorities, the passing of the bill actually increased the number of

tourists, many whom were southerners who had moved to California.

The tourists increasingly expected southern Nevada to imitate the Jim

Crow culture of the South just as the Dam workers had. As a result,

many of the club owners on Fremont Street banned African Americans

7
Ed Koch, “Bill that transformed a city - Las Vegas Sun,” Las Vegas Sun, May 15,
2008, http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/may/15/bill-transformed-city/.

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 Daniel Walsh
Hist 387
Prof. Petrik
12/12/2009
from the gambling tables and the bars. An example of the Jim Crow

segregation that occurred in the South and in Las Vegas was in the

theaters in Virginia.

Every person...operating...any public hall, theatre, opera house,

motion picture show or any place of public entertainment or public
assemblage which is attended by both white and colored persons, shall
separate the white race and the colored race and shall set apart and
designate...certain seats therein to be occupied by white persons and a
portion thereof , or certain seats therein, to be occupied by colored
persons.8

In, The Best City of Them All, Kaufman writes of the older black

resident that could move freely in any of the establishment of the town

with no issues, the one exception being the movie theater, where they

were required to sit in the balcony section. The theater seating was

just a start to the segregation that was soon to engulf the town. 9

The banning, at first, was not common until the explosion of the

African American migrant workers during World War II. One reason for

the increase in population numbers was the Basic Magnesium

Incorporated, a giant defense plant based in Henderson where a large

Magnesium deposit was found. The capacity of the BMI factory was so

large that it could create ten times Germany’s annual output. The BMI

factory workers would make magnesium ingots. The ingots, in turn,

8
“Martin Luther King Jr National Historic Site - Jim_Crow_Laws (U.S. National Park
Service),” http://www.nps.gov/malu/forteachers/jim_crow_laws.htm.

9
Perry Kaufman, The Best City of them all: A history of Las Vegas , 1930-1960. ( PhD diss., University of
California Santa Barbara, 1974); 326-327.

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 Daniel Walsh
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12/12/2009
were sent to a Los Angeles manufacturing plant were they were made

into tracer bullets, aerial flares, incendiary bombs, airplane fuselages,

and other products essential to the war effort. With a shortage of white

workers due to of the draft, BMI supervisors went to the small black

community of Las Vegas trying to find a labor force, causing the black

population in 1941 to increase sixteen fold. The BMI work force

consisted of one tenth of Nevada’s population and 60 percent of the

workers were southern blacks.10 BMI sent recruiters to the Deep South

in 1942 to entice black workers to the plant. At one point in Tallulah,

Louisiana, the word of defense jobs spread so quickly that the Mayor

forced the bus company to stop selling one way tickets to Las Vegas

because the whites were afraid that they would lose all of their

workers.11 Along with the black population boom in the early 40’s with

the BMI factory, Nellis Air force Base also added to the area’s growth.

Even though it was only a small number of blacks on the base at first

they were still segregated from the other white Airmen. When off duty

they were also segregate to the Westside of the city.12 Many of the

black Airmen being from the north they were aggravated that they

were not allowed to enjoy the night life on the strip.

10
Orleck Annelise, Storming Caesars Palace: How Black Mothers fought Their Own
War on Poverty.( Beacon Press Boston, 2005). 43.
11
ibid; 33.
12
Ibid; 45.

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 Daniel Walsh
Hist 387
Prof. Petrik
12/12/2009
Clubs that would cater to mixed crowds were often closed by the Mayor’s police

force to keep the color barrier strong. As a result the Airmen’s money went to the

Westside where black owned casinos, clubs, and hotels emerged rapidly. The Westside

quickly bragged of a Harlem Club and a Cotton Club of its own.13 Now with African

Americans having their own integrated clubs, there was an abundant nightlife on the

Westside. When the nightlife spilled out on the street, there were clashes between the Las

Vegas Police and the black soldiers. One soldier was killed and three wounded during a

melee. One police officer was slightly injured.14 That is one instance of police brutality

that was prevalent on the west side. The killing is just one incident of only a few in Las

Vegas were racial violence occurred. The Dixie also had only a few incidents of violent

African Americans riots thanks to the leadership of Martin Luther King Jr. and his ideal

of non-violence to achieve racial justice.15

Once the war was over, many of the Airman and defense workers decided to stay

on the west side rather than returning to eastern ghettos and cotton plantations in the

Delta. A portion of the workers went on to get jobs at the nuclear test facility near the

base and BMI. These were desirable and well-paying jobs for many workers, but the

benefits were mitigated by a large number of African American facility workers

contracting cancer.

Eugene Moehring, Resort city in the sunbelt: Las Vegas 1930-1970 (University of
13

Nevada Press,1989); 178.

14
Ibid:178

DR. KING HAILS INDIA AND GANDHI'S IDEAS." New York Times (1857-Current file),
15

March 19, 1959, http://www.proquest.com/ (accessed December 7, 2009).

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 Daniel Walsh
Hist 387
Prof. Petrik
12/12/2009
With the population growth segregation happened at such a

rapid rate, in 1939 the National Association of Advancement of Colored

People, Las Vegas chapter, sponsored a bill that called for the

integration of all public accommodations for minorities. The bill died in

committee after casino owners argued that integration would

discourage tourists from out of state areas. The economy of the entire

area was heavily dependent on tourism.16 The segregation being

obvious discrimination seemed to be a legitimate concern for the

resort owners. Minorities may not have been able to gamble or drink at

the clubs and casinos, but they were allowed to do work behind closed

doors, as kitchen help, custodians, maids, maintenance men, and

busboys.17 The fact that none of the in house employees were African

American was another example of deliberate job discrimination.

In the city and the surrounding county of Las Vegas, Jim Crow practices

did not only affect ordinary African American workers but also the black stars, were

affected. Before 1947, black headliners like Eartha Kitt and Lena Horne ate, slept and

gambled at the hotels were they entertained. But as Vegas became a desirable vacationing

attraction, it attracted visitors from the South and the East, which helped the

segregationist barriers. Between 1947 and the mid-1950s, top performers were

16
Eugene Moehring, Resort city in the sunbelt: Las Vegas 1930-1970 (University of
Nevada Press,1989); 175-176.
17
ibid; 186.

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 Daniel Walsh
Hist 387
Prof. Petrik
12/12/2009
discriminated against and were forced to rent rooms on the westside of the railroad

tracks.18 The discrimination against average African American workers could be argued

that it would affect the amount of business that the casino would get; but famous

entertainers not being allowed to stay or gamble at the casinos is obvious and

pointless prejudice. When a casino would advertise for the black

performers the guests would come there to see the performers, not

only to gamble. Not allowing the performers to go out and mingle with

their fans seems odd in many different aspects. Sammy Davis Jr., the

only African American member of Frank Sinatra’s Rat Pack, performing

with the Will Mastin Trio at the time, would perform on the main stage.

Then would be taken out the back entrance and forced to stay on the

Westside were he was charged an exorbitant price for his room. Davis

compared the Las Vegas ghetto, known as the Westside, to the

Tobacco Road of the Carolinas.19 According to journalist Katharine Best

and Katharine Hillyer, “some of the strip casino-hotels did [secretly

permit] black artists to stay on [their] premises, though it made clear

that they [were] not welcome in the actual casinos or restaurants.”20

18
Perry Kaufman, The Best City of them all: A history of Las Vegas , 1930-1960. ( PhD diss., University of
California Santa Barbara, 1974);367.

Eugene Moehring, Resort city in the sunbelt: Las Vegas 1930-1970 (University of
19

Nevada Press,1989);182.
20
Earnest Bracey, The Moulin Rouge and Black Rights in Las Vegas: A history of the
First Racially Integrated Hotel-Casino (North Carolina: Mcfarland & Company, Inc.,
2009).26

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 Daniel Walsh
Hist 387
Prof. Petrik
12/12/2009
So essentially, some black performers, like Josephine Baker,

could stay at only a specific few of the hotel-casinos, if they were

invisible, from the white public, which was a feat in itself. Josephine

Baker actually had in her contract that she could stay in any Strip hotel

where she was performing.21 For those who didn’t have that in their

contract, they had to go to the Westside for room and board.

The opening of the Moulin Rouge, in May of 1955, was one of the

first officially integrated casino-hotel that was comparable to those on

the strip. Even though the casino was integrated, it still featured ‘Big

Names’ from the worlds of entertainment, and sports.22 The Moulin

Rouge was the first officially integrated casino-hotel successfully

opened; there had been attempts prior to the Moulin Rouge however.

There was an attempt in 1942 to open an integrated casino on the strip

where all could mingle. The attempt failed because of quarrelsome

whites who intensely protested its opening. As a result of the

protesting, city officials denied an operating permit to the Shamrock

Hotel. Denial may have been because of the, Southern, Jim Crow

policies that were prevalent; opening an integrated casino would have

21
ibid; 26.
22
“Moulin Rouge Staff Features 'Big Names' - Wednesday, May 25, 1955,”
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/1955/may/25/moulin-rouge-staff-features-big-
names/.

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Hist 387
Prof. Petrik
12/12/2009
been breaking a taboo which the officials were not trying to do.23 The

opening of the Moulin Rouge was the first step towards the integration

of all casinos. In many cases famous black entertainers would perform

on the Strip, then would go to the Moulin Rouge and perform again,

eat, drink, gamble, and mingle with patrons of the casino. This was a

great step towards integration; because a portion of the time the white

patrons of the casinos on the strip would leave to see the entertainer

perform at the integrated club. Even with this outright job

discrimination for celebrities and the common workers in the 1950’s it

was soon to be reckoned with. The creation of the Nevada Equal Rights

Commission in the early 1960’s investigated the hotels for job

discrimination. The resorts obviously denied any job discrimination

against minorities:

Although the hotels conceded that they employed no black

dealers, waitresses, and bellmen or office personnel, and only a
“scattering of Orientals,” they attributed the situation to absence of
qualified non-caucasian applicants. While the lack of black casino
workers could conceivably be attributed to lack of experience,
hotelmen were hard-pressed to prove that blacks were not qualified to
be waiters, waitresses, and bellman.24

23
Orleck Annelise, Storming Caesars Palace: How Black Mothers fought Their Own
War on Poverty.( Beacon Press Boston, 2005); 27.
24
Eugene Moehring, Resort city in the sunbelt: Las Vegas 1930-1970 (University of
Nevada Press , 1989) 186.

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 Daniel Walsh
Hist 387
Prof. Petrik
12/12/2009
The discrimination now out in the open in 1962 NAACP leaders

did not go through the legislative branch; but went directly to the

governor. The NAACP was trying to convince the governor to make the

Gaming Control Commission take away the licenses of any gambling

establishment that was found guilty of discrimination.25 The NAACP

threatened to protest the discrimination with a march on the strip. Just

the threat was enough to have elected officials change their minds. An

article from the Las Vegas sun on the integration of the casinos:

"I think the people of Nevada have accepted the idea of

integration 100 percent," said Dr. James B. McMillan, local president of
the NAACP, in commenting on the Negroes acceptance in local
establishments following assurances from downtown and Strip
business that the policy of race discrimination in Las Vegas has
ended.26

Those were just a few examples of the job discrimination and the

efforts that were put fourth to create an equal job opportunities for

minority workers. The integration of the casinos was a peaceful

example of African Americans tried getting equality similar to

examples of Martin Luther King Jr. peaceful marches in the South.

Discrimination and segregation in the casinos was no longer

prevalent. Yet housing and school segregation were still rampant in the

25
Ibid; 188.
26
“LIFTING OF LV RACIAL BARRIER PASSES TEST - Las Vegas Sun,” 1960 March 26,
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/1960/mar/26/lifting-lv-racial-barrier-passes-test/?
history.

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 Daniel Walsh
Hist 387
Prof. Petrik
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city. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was meant to be the first step

towards desegregation of schools all over the country. Las Vegas’s

housing segregation made it more difficult for the schools to integrate.

In 1968 a survey was conducted that showed all juniors and senior

high school black students were bused to white schools, while most

elementary students were not. Las Vegas African Americans were not

pleased with the supposed integration and were soon to join forces

with those against job and housing discrimination in the riots of 1969-

1970.27 The NAACP pushed for further integration reform, when the

ruling went through the court White parents staged a one day boycott

of classes. Even the nonattendance of 17,000 students in local Vegas

schools did not affect the eventual ruling that was made.28 In 1972 the

New York Times writes: “Bus out and Parents for Neighborhood schools

—plan a boycott of all sixth-grade classes”29 Southern states also had

integration protesters for instants in Petal, Mississippi, a group of

almost 300 white parents and their children staged a sit-in against the

integration.30

27
Eugene Moehring, Resort city in the sunbelt: Las Vegas 1930-1970 (University of
Nevada Press , 1989) 194-195.

28
Ibid:196-197
29

"Busing Boycott Set in Las Vegas :Action Tomorrow Protests Order of Federal
Court." New York Times (1857-Current file), September 17, 1972,
30
By James T. Wooten Special to The New York Times. "A Protest by Parents :Parents Protest Federal
Integration Plan." New York Times (1857-Current file), January 8, 1970

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 Daniel Walsh
Hist 387
Prof. Petrik
12/12/2009
The segregation and discrimination have had lasting effects of

the African Americans that lived and are living in Las Vegas to this very

day. The Westside of the tracks is still a lower income housing area. It

wasn’t until the NAACP and other activist groups getting involved in

politics helping the civil rights of African Americans. The racial

problems that were prevalent in the South, were also in Las Vegas.

Vegas was similar to the South in many ways, but the way city officials

reacted toward protests and threats of protest was much different than

the South. The city officials were worried about the reputation of the

city and the effect protests would have on the tourism industry.

14