v!,.;;ts/13 IMPORTANT DATES

Key events chronicle progress by blacks in Southern Nevada1928: Las Vegas chapter of the Na-tional Association for the Advance-ment of Colored People forms.1931: Colored Citizens Labor .Protec-tive Association forms to get blackworkers hired on the Boulder Damconstruction project. By 1936, 44blacks had been hired to work on theproject. -

1941-45:Black workers migrate to LasVegas from Fordyce, Ark., and Talul-lah, La., during World War II in hopesof landing jobs at the Basic Magne-sium Inc. defense plant in Henderson.1946: Mabel Hoggard becomes firstblack teacher in the Las Vegas UnionSchool District, now the Clark CountySchool District.1955: Charles West and James McMil-lan, first black doctor and dentist,

open practices in Las Vegas. The Mou-lin Rouge, the first interracial hotel-casino in Las Vegas, opens on May 24,1955, briefly becomingone of thecity'shottest nightspots before poor manage-ment caused it to close a few monthslater.

1956: H.P. Fitzgerald becomes firstblack school administrator in the statewhen he is named principal of KitCarson School.1959: First black policeman HermanMoody is hired by Las Vegas PoliceDepartment. -1960: Historic agreement is signedMarch 26 at the Moulin Rouge, endingsegregation in Las Vegas hotels and

staving off a planned march on theStrip by the NAACP.1963: Earle White Jr. becomes firstblack attorney in Las Vegas and Ne-vada. Monroe Williams and JamesWalker become first black firefightersin Las Vegas.1966: WoodrowWilson becomesstate'sfirst black legislator when he is elect-ed to the Assembly.1967: First black waitress GwynestraDukes is hired to work on the Strip atthe Sands Hotel. James Walker, now aco-owner of the Moulin Rouge, be-comes first black dealer on Strip,working at the Desert Inn.

, 1969: Several days of rioting in Octo-ber send about 80 people to jail andabout 40 to local hospitals. The distur-bance was touched off by an incidentinvolving an' alleged assault by ablack youth on two white males at theGolden West Shopping Center, nowNucleus Plaza.1970: Sporadic rioting over civil rightsissues plagues Clark County schoolsduring the fall and winter.1971: Las Vegas hotels and servicesunions sign consent decree, pledgingto end discrimination in .hiring afterthe U.S. Justice Department filed acivil rights lawsuit. A federal judgealso orders the Clark County School

District to desegregate after theNAACP charges discrimination.1972: The Clark County School Dis-trict puts its controversial sixth-gradecenter plan into effect, integrating ele-mentary schools by busing black chil-dren out of their neighborhoods.1990: Police are criticized for the kill-ing in July of black casino floormanCharles Bush, 39. Bush died from aheadlock placed on him by one of threewhite officerswho had entered Bush'sapartment for an investigation.

1992: A jury in April acquits fourwhite Los Angeles police officers ofcharges of using excessive force in thearrest of black motorist Rodney King.The verdicts touch off riots around the

country, including Las Vegas. A boy-cott of Clark County schoolsin the fallprompts the school district in Octoberto create a Prime 6 plan that willallow West Las Vegas students in firstthrough third grades to attend ele-mentary schools in their neighbor-hoods.1993: Bank of America Nevada inMarch invests in Las Vegas' predomi-nantly black neighborhood known asWest Las Vegas by opening a branchoffice. Several efforts, including Com-munity Peace and All of Us Together,begin in March to defuse tensions inanticipation of King verdicts. City re-acts calmly to the split verdicts an-nounced April 17.

Compiled using materials from UNLV LI-brary's Special Collections, Nevada StateMuseum, Clark County School District andReview-Journal files.