Hotels, citizens honored as ‘60 desegregation in LV remembered in ceremony

Thursday, April 1, 1999 | 10:26 a.m.

Three Las Vegas Strip resorts and seven Las Vegans have been recognized for their involvement in desegregating Las Vegas hotels in 1960.

The honorees were recognized last Friday at the 39th Anniversary of the Desegregation of Las Vegas Resorts ceremony at the New Town Tavern, 600 Jackson Ave.

The event, sponsored by the African American Cultural Society Inc., recognized the March 26, 1960, date when the major Las Vegas Strip resorts agreed to discontinue the policy of not allowing blacks as guests.

The practice was in effect from the 1930s through the '50s, mainly because many high-roller gamblers were from Texas, Oklahoma and other Southern states, where blacks were routinely denied civil rights and even murdered.

Hotel operators of the era were fearful of losing business from white customers who would not frequent their establishments if they saw black people using the services.

Three of the hotels honored last Friday were the Desert Inn, Stardust and Tropicana, which were among the first of the larger resorts to agree to drop the color barrier and accept blacks as guests. Representatives of the general manager's offices of those resorts accepted the honors Friday.

Longtime black activist and state Sen. Joe Neal also was honored, as were former District Attorney George Foley Sr., former NAACP chief legal consultant Charles Kellar, black community activist Hazel Geran, who also was the first black director of the Senior Citizens Center of Nevada, New Town Tavern President Elijah Green, longtime black contractor Earl McDonald and the first black Las Vegas police officer, Herman Moody.

The event also featured the unveiling of plans to redevelop Jackson Avenue, which was the business center of predominantly black West Las Vegas before desegregation, but has since fallen into decay.