Brothers James Johnson, 86, left, and Willie Johnson, 85, are interviewed in North Las Vegas Friday, Dec. 2, 2022.
Friday, Dec. 9, 2022 | 2 a.m.
W illie and James Johnson have watched North Las Vegas grow and evolve — in population, socially and economically — for more than 50 years.
Willie Johnson, an 85-year-old retired chef at the Flamingo, moved to Las Vegas in the early 1960s and to North Las Vegas a few years later.
He has called North Las Vegas home ever since.
Willie and his older brother James Johnson, 86, were part of a group of longtime North Las Vegans — the qualifier was a half-century of residency — honored by city leaders last month.
Decades after moving to Southern Nevada from a small town in Mississippi, the Johnson brothers remain proud of their city, which has grown since its founding in 1946 to become the third-largest municipality in Nevada with nearly 275,000 residents.
“In 1963, this was just a small city, so it’s night and day from then until now,” Willie said recently from his home on Veronica Avenue. “At that time, we stayed away from a lot of what was going on because we weren’t welcomed back then. It was very segregated.”
As the Las Vegas Valley grew in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s, a lot of African American and Latino families settled in North Las Vegas.
According to the most-recent figures from the U.S. Census Bureau, 41% of the city’s population is Hispanic or Latino, while African Americans make up 22%.
North Las Vegas is one of the biggest minority-majority cities in America.
Between early 2010 and July 1, 2021, North Las Vegas gained about 57,000 residents, according to the Census Bureau.
Business is booming, and there has been significant progress of the social variety in North Las Vegas.
The city recently elected its first African American mayor, Pamela Goynes-Brown, who is also the first Black full-time mayor of any city in Nevada. The city also has a Black chief of police, Jacqueline Gravatt.
“Things have changed, and it’s beautiful,” Willie said.
Shortly after moving to Nevada, Willie started at the Flamingo, where he would work for almost 40 years.
“In the 1960s, there were just places where Blacks couldn’t go, so you didn’t push it,” Willie said. “As time went on, things started to change.”
After the Johnson brothers moved to Nevada, they both worked at the Flamingo for a time. James Johnson then went to work for a local chemical company, where he had a 30-year career.
James bought a home in North Las Vegas in 1970. Willie bought his home a couple of years before that.
The brothers still live in the two respected houses to this day.
“There were jobs here in Las Vegas, so that’s what brought us here,” Willie said. “Here, you could get a job and you could keep a job. You just had to go to work. The weather was better, too. I’d say we came out pretty good.”
The Johnson brothers are particularly proud of their new mayor.
That’s not just because she is African American — James said that in 1963, he wouldn’t have thought it would be possible for North Las Vegas to have a Black mayor — but because they watched her grow up.
Goynes-Brown, a retired assistant principal with the Clark County School District, grew up across the street from the Willie Johnson family.
Goynes-Brown said Willie has always been “Mr. Johnson” to her.
“Everyone on our street was very close growing up,” Goynes-Brown said. “As kids, we would hop from house to house, then we’d all know to go home when the street lights came on.”
As Pamelia Atkins-Girouard, Willie’s daughter, put it, the Johnsons and the Goynes clan were “like one big happy family.”
Willie said he’s amazed by how the community has grown.
“North Las Vegas is growing so fast now, it can be a struggle to keep up with it,” Willie said. “From what I see, North Las Vegas has been getting what it needs. Look at the warehouses and the racetrack. … I think it’s one of the better places in the Las Vegas area.”
James said it’s been fun to watch his city grow.
“We’re moving,” James said. “They’re building industrial; they’re building homes; it’s really moving. There’s a lot of desert out there that we thought would be left forever, but it’s developed now. North Las Vegas is a friendly city and a growing city. To me, it’s great.”
Willie credits former North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee with much of the city’ business growth.
“Our former mayor got it going, and Pam, she’s going to try to keep it going,” he said. “I’m looking forward to what’s going to happen here in North Las Vegas. In 1963, it was nothing, but now North Las Vegas is something.”
