In The News: Department of History
Drive to the 900 block of West Bonanza Road in Las Vegas' Historic Westside, and all that’s left of the Moulin Rouge Hotel & Casino is a giant vacant lot and a series of peeling murals on an adjacent building. But this spot on the National Register of Historic Places is a portal into the city’s Black history.
African Fashion Show: The fashion industry owes so much to Black culture. Many of the trends we see today, and that were popularized in the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s, can be traced back to the Black community. In recognition of that influence, Las Vegas’ chapter of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women Inc. will host its fifth-annual African Fashion Show, educating attendees on the history of Black fashion and the importance of the African American image. Claytee White, director of UNLV’s Oral History Center, will guide the conversation as a guest speaker, joining designers, fashion boutique owners and market vendors in a celebration of Black heritage.
Las Vegas has no shortage of great entertainers no matter their racial background, but turn back the clock 50 or 60 years ago, those entertainers could not stay at the casinos or hotels they performed at. Instead, they stayed at the Historic Harrison Guest House.
This Black History Month, News 3 is highlighting and honoring pioneers who have shaped and changed what’s possible in Nevada. One of those people is Sarann Knight-Preddy. Knight-Preddy was the first Black person to receive a gaming license in the state. She died in 2014, but her legacy lives on in merit of ways.
Pamela Goynes-Brown remembers playing outside the old North Las Vegas City Hall when her father, who was on the City Council, would drive his children to work. Little did she then imagine that one day she would make history as Nevada's first African-American female mayor.
Pamela Goynes-Brown remembers playing outside the old North Las Vegas City Hall when her father, who served on the City Council, would take his children to work. She could not have imagined then that she would one day make history as Nevada’s first Black mayor.
It was between the war and the start of the city’s population boom that Jack and Maxine Cason came to Las Vegas. As their success grew, so did the city. “I saw an opportunity where if you worked hard, you could make something of yourself. The city grew, and I just grew with it,” Cason, then 77, said in a Review-Journal story before his induction into the Southern Nevada Sports Hall of Fame in 2004.
The William Hill and Caesars Sportsbook mobile sports betting app is working again after bettors weren’t able to log in and cash their bets from the Super Bowl.
Elizabeth Nelson, an associate professor of history at University of Nevada Las Vegas, has examined the "hidden history of Valentine’s Day." Beyond the pressures of consumer culture, or any outsized emphasis on romantic love, she says there's been a yearning for something more sincere "from the very beginning."
Valentine's Day falls on February 14—a day when lovers show their appreciation for each other, through romantic poems, letters, cards, chocolates, roses, or other gifts.
It was Valentine’s Day 1917 in the Minnesota farming village of Lewiston, and Fred Roth — a fourth grader — seems to have come up with just the way to express his love for his sweetheart, Louise Wirt. He gave her a card.
The year was 1943, and Eleanor Lambert was on a mission. Lambert, America’s so-called “first fashion publicist,” had spent the previous two years establishing the New York Dress Institute, an organization dedicated to the U.S.’s growing legion of homegrown design power. And growing it was: While American clothing had long imitated trends originating from Paris, World War II placed a new emphasis on all things domestic. Within retailers, demand for French designers was rapidly giving way to names like Claire McCardell, Hattie Carnegie, and Norman Norell, who were just beginning to establish New York City as a fashion capital in its own right. Lambert wanted to cement it as such.
