Question of the Day - 21 June 2025

[Editor's Note: We offered this question to David McKee, who kindly agreed to take it on.]

Westside Las Vegas history is inextricably intertwined with that of the African American legacy in the Las Vegas Valley.

The original townsite for what became Las Vegas was identified in 1902, when a surveyor working for rancher Helen J. Stewart, who owned more than 1,800 acres around Big Springs, discovered 80 acres west of the proposed route of the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake City Railroad tracks that were unclaimed by anyone. The enterprising surveyor, J.T. McWilliams, bought the acreage for himself and laid out a 28-block town.

By 1905, the railroad was fully operational and what's now Westside, then known as the McWilliams Townsite, was designated the valley’s first business district. Unfortunately for McWillilams, the area we know as “downtown Las Vegas” was formed that same year, when the railroad auctioned 110 acres to the east of the tracks. This spurred an exodus of McWilliams Townsite settlers to the east side of town, though many people who couldn't afford lots, considered expensive at the time, stayed put.

In June 1911, when Las Vegas was formally incorporated, the McWilliams Townsite was renamed West Las Vegas and “Westside” was born. Railroad agent Walter Bracken offered free Westside parcels to any church that wanted to put down roots there. Zion Methodist took Bracken up on his offer, opening in 1917 and becoming the longest-running Black congregation in the area, now 108 years old.

It was followed in 1923 by Las Vegas Grammar School, Branch #1, which is now known as Historic Westside School. Its benefactor was none other than Helen Stewart, who donated the land. Starting as a humble two-room school, Las Vegas Grammar School initially featured an integrated body of white, Latino, and Paiute Indian students. Black students followed in 1926.

Already the tensions that would make Las Vegas the “Mississippi of the West” were rising. This was highlighted in 1925 when the Ku Klux Klan marched through downtown Vegas. Pushback came in 1928, when the local chapter of the NAACP was formed.

It wasn’t nearly enough. The city of Las Vegas banished African Americans from downtown in 1929. Black-owned businesses that didn’t comply had their licenses revoked. The result cut both ways, as white citizens moved out of Westside. With Jim Crow laws already in place in Nevada, the formal division of downtown defined by skin color solidified and remains to this day.

Driven west by the Great Depression and lured by the prospect of jobs at Hoover Dam, African Americans flocked to Las Vegas. The vast majority were turned away; only 44 out of a 20,000-man workforce on the dam were men of color. The rest gravitated to Westside, where a substantial tent city arose. 

The two halves of Las Vegas were symbolically and physically separated by the railroad tracks. This was slightly remediated in 1937 with the opening of the Clark Avenue Railroad Underpass, now known as the Bonanza Underpass.

Westside grew again when the U.S. became involved in World War II. Opportunity for the residents beckoned at Basic Magnesium Inc. in Henderson and the Las Vegas Army Air Gunnery Range, now Nellis Air Force Base.

As is well known, however, Las Vegas’ burgeoning casino industry was as lily white as could be at this time. Blacks could work in casinos in menial jobs. They could even entertain the customers, but visiting talent couldn't eat in the restaurants or stay in the hotels. In 1942, Genevieve Harrison opened her eponymous Westside boarding house, followed by numerous imitators. The Harrison House still stands, the last exemplar of those institutions that hosted the Louis Armstrongs, Pearl Baileys, Lena Hornes, and Sammy Davis Juniors of the age. In addition, businesses and restaurants sprang up along the main drag, Jackson Avenue. Housing, however, failed to keep pace, resulting in an enlargement of the Westside tent city.

According to a City of Las Vegas formal history, “City officials do little to address the housing shortage, thinking that African Americans will leave just as quickly as they came once the war is over; but they stay.” Not only that, plumbing, electricity, and paving were hard to come by, institutionalizing Westside’s have-not status. Residents had to actively petition the city in order to receive even the most basic amenities.

Despite the prevailing segregation, signs of vitality continued to manifest in Westside. In 1950, the Tonga Club opened, the first Las Vegas casino owned by a Black woman, Sarann Knight Preddy. Among professionals drawn to Westside was architect Paul Revere Williams. He designed the Berkley Square housing district, which can be seen still. But the Westside’s greatest claim to fame arrived in 1955, when the Moulin Rouge opened. An integrated casino-hotel, it debuted on May 24 at a cost of $3.5 million (big money back then). African Americans living in Las Vegas finally — albeit briefly — had access to visible good-paying casino jobs.

Tomorrow: The Moulin Rouge's tragically brief existence and ongoing racial tensions.