|
Las Vegas and Segregation In 1955, Las Vegas' contribution to the civil rights movement was born. Like most things in Vegas, it began with a casino. The Moulin Rouge casino opened in March of 1955 on the westside of Las Vegas. The westside was a ghetto without water and sewer utilities, and the home to Las Vegas' African-American community. Attempts had been made as early as the teens to confine the town's black community to Block Sixteen, the red light district at the time. The attempts failed, but the African-American community was instead confined to the westside. At the time Las Vegas was known as "the Mississippi of the West" due to its rigidly enforced segregation. While blacks could work for the casinos, and very rarely even perform at them, they could not stay at the hotels or gamble at the casinos. A rare expection was made when Lena Horne performed at Bugsy Seigel's Flamingo, and even then the staff went so far as to burn the linens she used. The Moulin Rouge was the first integrated casino, employing blacks and whites alike in every position at the hotel/casino. While the casino was wildly popular, it shut down six months later. To this day, no one knows for sure why the property survived for only six months, although plenty of theories abound, ranging from mismanagement of funds to pressure from the whites-only establishments on the Strip. On March 17, 1960, Las Vegas NAACP President Dr. James B. McMillan had an announcement to make: "We will hold a 'spontaneous' peaceful demonstration similar to what has occurred already in the South." The demonstration, set for March 26, was to protest Strip and Glitter Gulch policies that kept hotels and casinos segregated. McMillian used the still closed Moulin Rouge as his 'war room' to plan his strategy in an attempt to force the casino owners to acknowledge the segregation. Consequently, on March 25, a day before the planned march, it was announced that the demonstration was called off and that negotiations leading ultimately to the desegregation of casino properties was forthcoming. These negotiations took place in the Moulin Rouge. State and local officials were in attendance along with the casino owners, and arbitration was hammered out by mediators, most prominently, Las Vegas Sun founder and editor Hank Greenspun (who was, interestingly enough, also Bugsy's Seigel's public relations manager for the Flamingo). An agreement to desegregate, known as the Moulin Rouge Agreement, was made in attempts to avoid any bad publicity civil rights protesters would bring to the casinos. Dr. McMillan, a local dentist, had managed to con the mob that effectively ran Las Vegas. He had in essence acted alone, announcing the protest without consulting other African-American community leaders. Had the casino owners not capitulated, the protest would not have occured. Thus, in appropriate Las Vegas fashion, Dr. McMillan had gambled- and won.
|
#
¿
May 20, 2005 20:15
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 25, 2024 22:42 |
|