Pop Mitchell remembered as early black community leader

Monday, March 2, 1998 | 4:28 a.m.

Everybody called him "Pop."

In 1934, the local newspapers referred to him as A.B. or William Mitchell, or the "colored rancher" who had a place on the old Los Angeles highway, which today is South Las Vegas Boulevard.

To the black community, he was a community-minded leader when minorities were struggling.

But in the 1990s, little is known about this early pioneer who came to Las Vegas when it was just a dusty railroad town.

A.B. "Pop" Mitchell was one of the first black men to settle in the Las Vegas Valley, according to Clarence Ray, also one of the first black settlers, in his oral history published in the book "Black Politics and Gaming in Las Vegas 1920s-1980s."

Ray said Mitchell came to the area in 1913 and purchased 40 acres (under the Desert Land Act of 1877, according to the Sentinel Voice, a Las Vegas newspaper focused on the black community) near the downtown post office in Paradise Valley. His wife, Minnie, worked as a nurse in a local hospital. Mitchell's daughter Natalie was the first black child born in Las Vegas, Ray said.

The place on the old Los Angeles highway was known as Mitchell's resort, a 14-room, two-story building that served the local black community in the early 1930s and was the scene of scores of parties. Mitchell operated a swimming pool, a dance hall and a soft drink stand on the resort, according to newspaper articles.

It wasn't uncommon for black people to own property back then, Ray said.

"Most of our people worked in the railroad shops and the railroad company owned a lot of land," Ray explained in his oral history. "They would encourage the employees to buy, so almost everybody had their own properties. Since blacks could buy property anywhere, everyone of these people I remember owned more than just one house."

Land may have been available for purchase, but segregation limited the leisure and employment opportunities for blacks. Woodrow Wilson, Nevada's first black Assemblyman, remembers Mitchell's resort.

"At that time Las Vegas really discriminated. There were only certain places you could visit and be served (if you were black) -- Mitchell's resort was one of those places," said Wilson, who visited the ranch only once due to limited transportation.

In 1934, an advertisement for a Fourth of July party at the ranch ran in the local paper showing that the resort also offered political influence:

"Learn the right way to vote for your favorite Candidate in the Coming Election. Many other attractions -- Just come is all we ask and you will be happy. Bring the Children -- All Is Safe ..."

The ranch was destroyed by fire a few days after the party. Damage estimates came in at $6,000. Nobody was at the ranch at the time and there are no known records stating the cause of the fire.

Fighting for civil rights was also a major role for Mitchell as well as the rest of the black community which, according to the Bureau of Census figures, consisted of 143 people in 1930 -- an increase from 16 in 1910.

Mitchell was one of the founders of Zion Methodist Church. Pastor Marion Bennett said that Mitchell was one of the prime movers in getting the new church together. Bennett is the current pastor of the church, which is now located at 2108 N. Revere Dr. in North Las Vegas.

Despite his accomplishments, Mitchell's name disappeared into the shadow of other early local black activists. Many local historians said they had never heard of A.B., Pops or William Mitchell.

The local newspapers back then had little interest in covering stories concerning the black community. The few articles that could be found at the Nevada State Museum and Historical Society mentioned political organizations and clubs, of which Mitchell had been either chairman or president.

The focus of the meetings was never mentioned in detail, just the basics: "An enthusiastic meeting of the Las Vegas Colored Progressive Club was held Friday night at the home of Henry Robinson, in the Westside, with refreshments served." Twenty-five members were in attendance. The story reported that there had been steady gains in attendance over the past few weeks.

"A strong 'Colored Democratic Club' has been organized for the coming campaign and promises to take a leading part in community election activities," the newspaper article said. A.B. Mitchell was named president. "A big banquet to launch the organization in first-class style will be held Tuesday evening at Nick's place, First and Ogden."

Nick's place was a restaurant owned by Eli Nickerson, chairman of the executive board of the "Colored Democratic Club." The menu specialized in Southern cooking. An ad for the restaurant appeared in the local paper listing barbecue, fried chicken, chili, tamales and Virginia baked ham.

Mitchell held a variety of jobs aside from running the ranch, growing vegetables to sell in town and heading political organizations.

A 1920 census recorded Abraham Mitchell as a machinist in the automobile industry. Wilson remembers Mitchell as a contractor when people were just beginning to build in the valley.

Dave Hoggard, of the longtime Las Vegas Hoggard family, said that Mitchell also worked as a laborer on the construction of the Boulder Dam, now known as the Hoover Dam. An official at the Boulder City-Hoover Dam Museum said she has been unsuccessful in tracking down an official list of dam workers -- only a list of those who died while building the dam is available.

Born in Texas in 1885, Pop Mitchell played a role in Nevada history, but no one seems to know for sure what happened to him. Hoggard said that toward the end of his life Pop moved to Washington state where he later died. Ray, in his oral history, published in 1991, said that Natalie, Mitchell's daughter, is still alive and residing in Seattle.

Pastor Bennett of Zion Methodist Church knows Mitch-ell only by his name, which is read every year on the anniversary of the church.

"We trace the history and he's a part of that," Bennett said.