Letter: Saying thanks for a column of remembrances

Friday, March 30, 2001 | 10:16 a.m.

I would like to take this opportunity to express my heartfelt appreciation and gratitude for the Sun's reprint on March 2 of the article, "Dr. Charles West's death a loss for Southern Nevada." The article was written by Barbara Greenspun's late husband, Hank Greenspun, on Oct. 10, 1984, to commemorate some of my father's contributions and achievements as a physician, a community activist and a civil rights leader.

Mr. Greenspun's description of Las Vegas in the early '50s was a walk down memory lane for me. I remember those segregated sections in the movie theaters, the one night each week that was set aside for blacks at the skating rink, and the underpass between Main and "D" Street on Bonanza, which was known as the "Iron Curtain." I had a rude awakening as a young child who recently moved from Los Angeles to the racist and segregated small town of Las Vegas -- which was also known as the "Mississippi of the West." A rude awakening is putting it mildly -- what I encountered was total culture shock! Reading Mr. Greenspun's article made me feel as though he must have been there at the kitchen table with my father and myself when "Pop" would give me lessons in tolerance, faith and perseverance.

I remember my father being there for so many people. In fact, I never witnessed him walking away or saying no to anyone who needed or requested his help. In my youth, we are very impressionable and my father was bigger than life to me, and he still is. He was a true Renaissance man, my hero, and the "Godfather of the Westside."

Yes, Mr. Greenspun's article brought back so many wonderful memories of the bad times and the good times. Again, my family and I wish to extend our sincere thanks to Mrs. Greenspun for her thoughtfulness, concern, remembrance, and recognition of my father's achievements and contributions to the city and state he loved so dearly. Her husband was a true friend to my father, to the Westside community, and to the civil rights movement. We will never forget his great contributions to the cause and to the success of integration, civil rights, and human rights.

JOHN P. WEST

archive