Question of the Day - 07 February 2019

Las Vegas doesn't figure in the movie Green Book. The tour by the Don Shirley Trio (which took 18 months, not two as in the movie) made “a hard left turn at Ohio” and proceeded through the deep South. It didn't stop in Las Vegas and we've found no evidence that Dr. Donald Shirley ever played Sin City.

As for the film’s title, it refers to a AAA travel guide for African-American motorists seeking integration-friendly establishments.

The actual The Negro Motorist Green Book has been out of circulation since 1966, rendered mostly obsolete by the 1964 Civil Rights Act, although facsimile copies from 1954 and 1963 have been republished. Julian Bond, the civil rights leader and 20-year Georgia legislator, said of the conditions that gave rise to the Green Book, “it was a guidebook that told you not where the best places were to eat, but where there was any place.” 

The book was emblazoned with a slogan from Mark Twain: “Travel is fatal to prejudice.” For instance, patronizing of Negro-friendly Esso (a sponsor) was encouraged, while segregationist Shell was not. Original publisher Victor Hugo Green’s founding intent was “to give the Negro traveler information that will keep him from running into difficulties or embarrassments and to make his trip more enjoyable.”

The 1940 edition of the Green Book didn't include Las Vegas, but our town had made it in by the 1963-64 edition (so Shirley could have used it if his travels took him through the “Mississippi of the West”).

Vegas establishments that welcomed African-Americans were listed as the Carver House (Jackson and D streets), Hotel Jackson (405 W. Jackson St.), Shaw Apartment Tourist Home (619 W. Van Buren St.) and West Motel (950 W. Bonanza Road). Both the Boulder Dam Hotel and Lake Mead Lodge in Boulder City made the grade. Casinos, while nominally integrated, are conspicuously absent from this late edition.

There were selective cases of integration for black entertainers with clout. In 1953, the same year that the Last Frontier drained its pool after Dorothy Dandridge dipped one lovely foot in it, Lena Horne was permitted to stay at the Sands. But according to Fear and Motels in Las Vegas, “She was not treated as a guest. Her manager had to fight for her children to be allowed in the pool and for her musicians to also be allowed to stay and use the front entrance. Horne herself was not even allowed to walk through the casino alone, and had to be escorted by security.” One evening, Marlene Dietrich defied hotel management by taking Horne by the arm and leading her into the casino bar.

(On a side note, Frank Sinatra also broke a number of color barriers, one with Lena Horne on his arm. In the famous incident, he showed up unannounced at the Manhattan whites-only hotspot, the Stork Club, with Lena. When asked who made the reservation for them, he replied, "Abraham Lincoln." After much hand-wringing, management admitted her.)

Nat King Cole also made some 1953 waves by agreeing to be lured away from the Thunderbird to the Sands on the stipulation that he and his entourage could stay on-property. Again, this was not without hiccups: “When the maître d’ banned Cole’s side-men from the dining room, Cole was so angry that he threatened to leave the hotel altogether. Cole’s threat quickly ensured that the manager briefed his staff that the Cole trio were not subject to their Jim Crow policy.”

Las Vegas Sun Publisher Hank Greenspun is often credited with brokering an end to the color barrier on the Strip. In 1960, he helped convene a summit at the defunct Moulin Rouge between civil-rights leaders and the local gaming industry. University of Las Vegas history professor Michael Green says change took effect “immediately. James McMillan, who was NAACP president, and his board went themselves or sent African-Americans to the various places to test it. The only two that didn't immediately go along were Binion's Horseshoe and the old Sal Sagev, now the Golden Gate.”