Nevada civil rights pioneer Hoggard dies at 86

Tuesday, Aug. 14, 2001 | 8:41 a.m.

In the early 1950s local children ditching school knew when they saw truant officer David Hoggard coming their way that it was useless to run.

Some did run, only to find that he would doggedly chase them through every nook and cranny of Las Vegas' backstreets until he caught them and put them back into the classrooms where they belonged.

Later, as president of the Las Vegas chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Hoggard showed the same tenacity to put an end to discrimination against blacks in Strip hotels and to usher the civil rights movement into Clark County several years before it took hold nationwide.

J. David Hoggard Sr., one of the first local black police officers and the first black to head the Economic Opportunity Board, died Wednesday at Nathan Adelson Hospice. He was 86.

Services for Hoggard, the widower of Mabel Hoggard, the first black teacher in Nevada, will be 11 a.m. Wednesday at Zion United Methodist Church. Palm Mortuary handled the arrangements.

"I first met David when he was attendance officer for the school district," said former Nevada Gov. Mike O'Callaghan, the executive editor of the Sun. "He always showed his deep personal concern for each individual pupil. He saw the pupils as people, not problems."

Among his many accomplishments, Hoggard headed the local NAACP from 1955 to 1959, founded radio station KCEP-FM 88.1 in 1973 and served as a member of the Las Vegas Board of Zoning Adjustment for 16 years. He guided the EOB through its greatest period of growth, from five employees to 300 by the time he retired in 1982.

Born Nov. 25, 1914, in Jersey City, N.J., Hoggard served in the Army during World War II, and in December 1945 was discharged at the rank of sergeant. The next year he moved to Las Vegas and got a job with the Las Vegas Police Department.

In 1949 Hoggard left the police force because of a lack of advancement opportunities for blacks.

Hoggard was a service station operator and construction laborer before landing the truant officer job that he held from 1953 to 1965.

In March 1960 Hoggard was one of several community leaders who met with late Sun Publisher Hank Greenspun to develop a plan that led to Strip hotels ending their longstanding policy of banning blacks as guests.

When the Economic Opportunity Board was formed in 1965, Hoggard became a charter director. He worked as program assistant that year and as a program coordinator from 1966 to 1968. He served as deputy director briefly before becoming executive director in August 1968.

Hoggard was chairman of the Las Vegas zoning board from 1970 to 1972 and a charter member of the Southern Nevada Human Relations Commission from 1960 to 1975.

In November 1996 Hoggard, a life member of the NAACP, was not allowed to vote in what became one of a series of controversial local NAACP officer elections. Nevertheless, he was elected to the executive board.

Hoggard was a member of the Community College of Southern Nevada Advisory Board for 25 years. Last year he donated eight hours of his oral history tapes to local libraries.

Hoggard is survived by his second wife, Verlia Hoggard of Las Vegas; a son J. David Hoggard Jr., of Las Vegas; a stepson Charles Wims of Oakland; two brothers, Bishop Clinton of Chevy Chase, Md., and Francis Hoggard of Union City, N.J.; a sister, Symera White of Bethesda, Md.; two grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; three nephews; and one niece.