The long road to acceptance on the Strip

Sunday, March 21, 1999 | 9:28 a.m.

During a 50-year period in Las Vegas, blacks went from pioneering settlers to second-class citizens to civil-rights champions who successfully fought to end segregation policies of the Strip hotels.

The following chronology is gathered from several sources, including the city of Las Vegas, "McWilliams Townsite: A History of West Las Vegas and its Residents" by Karen Tackett, the Las Vegas Sun and Ebony magazine:

* 1910: Las Vegas' first black family, the Lowes, arrive and settle on what is now Casino Center Boulevard. A year later, the city of Las Vegas, with a population of 1,000, is incorporated.

* 1913: A.B. Mitchell, who later would establish the city's NAACP office, settles on 40 acres of land adjacent to where the downtown U.S. Post Office now stands. He would go on to open a swimming pool, soft-drink stand and dance hall on his ranch. Six years later, his daughter Natalie becomes the first black born in Las Vegas.

* 1922: Las Vegas population: 5,000, of whom 50 are black. A year later, Lucretia Stevens and her husband Ernest arrive in Las Vegas with their four children. The diary she keeps chronicles the lives of early black settlers in Las Vegas.

* 1926: The Las Vegas branch of the NAACP is formed. A.B. Mitchell is its first president. A year later, George Harris arrives in Las Vegas from Louisiana. Eight of his 12 children are born here, including Donna Harris, the first native black Las Vegan to earn a master's degree.

* 1928: News of potential jobs on the Hoover Dam project brings a flood of people to Southern Nevada.

* 1930: As more whites move into the area, they buy out the properties of black landowners, who relocate to the McWilliams Townsite on the "west side" of the railroad tracks. It is regarded as the start of segregation in Las Vegas. The area still exists today as West Las Vegas or "the Westside" and remains predominantly black.

* 1931: On March 19, the bill legalizing gambling in Nevada is signed into law. Las Vegas' first resort, the Meadows, opens two months later.

* 1932: After NAACP leaders argue against the Six Companies' practice of refusing to hire blacks on the Hoover Dam project, the discrimination policy is reluctantly dropped. The first 10 black workers are hired in July. In all, 44 black men are hired to work on the dam -- 30 miners in the diversion tunnels and 14 common laborers.

* 1935: The first Helldorado Old West celebration is held. Blacks in Las Vegas now number 150, less than 3 percent of the population. Segregation begins to take hold as blacks are routinely banned from bars and restaurants they had long frequented. Percy Powell becomes the first black to graduate from Las Vegas High School.

* 1940: Las Vegas population: 16,000, of whom 178 are black.

* 1941: The El Rancho opens on what will become the Las Vegas Strip. A year later, the Harlem Club, Brown Derby and Ebony Club open in West Las Vegas. Those black community businesses are integrated.

* 1944: The Will Mastin Trio, featuring Sammy Davis Jr., performs at the El Rancho, but the group is not allowed to stay there. Throughout the 1940s and '50s, black performers including Davis, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Lena Horne, Louis Armstrong, Billy Eckstine, the Treniers, Nat King Cole, Pearl Bailey and the Inkspots headline the Strip, yet they must stay at West Las Vegas boarding houses.

* 1948: Bolstered by a significant number of black-owned businesses opening and thriving in the black community, the West Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce is formed.

* 1954: An article in the March issue of Ebony Magazine titled "Negroes can't win in Las Vegas" proves humiliating to the Nevada gaming industry. The Nevada attorney general's office investigates allegations of discrimination branding Nevada "The Mississippi of the West."

* 1955: Las Vegas' population is 40,000, with 16,000 blacks. Most blacks are crowded into what has become slum-like conditions in West Las Vegas. Dr. Charles West becomes the first black doctor in the state. A short time later, James McMillan becomes Las Vegas' first black dentist. McMillan later becomes the first of his race to serve on the state Democratic Central Committee. The Moulin Rouge opens on West Bonanza Road. The Town Tavern opens on Jackson Avenue and is still in business.

* 1959: The Nevada Legislature passes a bill legalizing interracial marriages in the state. Oran Gragson becomes the first Las Vegas mayor to hire blacks in significant city jobs. Herman Moody becomes the city's first black police officer.

* 1960: Following a threatened massive civil-rights march on the Strip, major hotels agree to accept a plan offered by Sun Publisher Hank Greenspun that would allow blacks to stay at the resorts. A March 26 Sun headline reads: "Vegas Color Barrier Lifted." The next year, the Nevada Commission on Equal Rights is formed as the civil-rights movement begins to gather momentum nationwide.