Question of the Day - 22 June 2025

Yesterday, we covered the history of Westside from its inception in 1902 through the opening of the Moulin Rouge in 1955. Today, we continue from the Moulin Rouge up to the early 21st century.  

The golden age of Westside ushered in by the post-war prosperity didn’t last. Nor did the Moulin Rouge.

Las Vegas' only integrated casino closed after only six months in operation, allegedly driven out of business by “the boys” in the casino industry. But the Black community had experienced an important taste of progress. In 1960, it forced a summit meeting with Gov. Grant Sawyer and civic leaders. By threatening to march down the Las Vegas Strip, the NAACP and the community convinced the establishment to recognize their grievances. 

Ironically, the Moulin Rouge, the symbolic instrument of desegregation, short-lived as it was, served as the site of the sit-down involving Sawyer and other elected leaders with the NAACP. There, the integration of Las Vegas was hammered out. It was a compromise: Blacks couldn’t work public-facing jobs at the casinos, but were no longer barred from staying, playing, and eating at them.

Segregation in Las Vegas continued to be a problem, though. In 1968, the NAACP and League of Women Voters sued the Clark County School District over its maintenance of segregation in the schools. At the time of the controversial policy, the CCSD was overseen by Kenny Guinn, who was later elected governor of Nevada. Desegregation was finally imposed four years later when the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals mandated that school busing be implemented. Students from all but the sixth grade were bused from Westside to schools in the east part of town and vice versa.

It didn't help much. Racial tensions continued to build. During October 1969, they boiled over in the form of riots. Las Vegas Mayor Oran K. Gragon cracked down by calling out the National Guard and barricading Westside for four days.

The NAACP subsequently filed a lawsuit against Las Vegas hotels and its labor unions for ongoing racial discrimination. In 1971, this resulted in a federal consent decree, whereby Black people finally had access to visible and prominent jobs in Vegas casinos and resorts. At roughly the same time, the Nevada Legislature outlawed housing discrimination in the state.

Still, thanks to decades of systemic racism, Westside had trouble keeping pace with the other side of the tracks. In 1980, businessman Bob Bailey’s Nevada Economic Development Co. floated a plan whereby Jackson Avenue would become a pedestrian realm, at least between C and G Streets. He found no takers. 

The same could be said of periodic attempts to revive the glory days of the Moulin Rouge. Sarann Knight Preddy, late of the Tonga Club, reenters our chronicle as the buyer of the bygone casino in 1990. She failed in her attempts to reopen it, but did manage to get the casino added to the National Register of Historic Places. 

In 1992, African American parents launched a boycott of local schools. As a result, the grand bargain of 20 years earlier was modified to reduce busing and put more resources into minority-dominant schoolhouses. 

Flash-forward a decade. In 2003, a fire roared through the Moulin Rouge, the first in a series of indignities to be inflicted on that property. Knight Preddy sold it the following year for $12 million. The new owners promised a $200 million redevelopment, but it didn’t happen.

Tomorrow: As we reach the present day, the City of Las Vegas cordons off Westside, literally and symbolically.