Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2021 | 2 a.m.
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As the new board chair of the Neon Museum, an unabashed history geek and lover of Las Vegas, I am in awe of the stories behind the neon signs that celebrate the unique and colorful history of our city. But what intrigues and impresses me most are the important contributions from African Americans to our city — contributions that many Las Vegans may not know about. While February is Black History Month, I am proud to say that at the Neon Museum, Black history is celebrated year-round.
Consider La Concha Motel. Designed in 1961 by pioneering African American architect Paul Revere Williams, whose work is enjoying a significant renaissance nationwide, the immediately recognizable mid-century modern La Concha Motel lobby is now the Neon Museum’s visitors center. Known as the “architect to the stars” in Los Angeles, Williams’ impact extended to Las Vegas and includes the iconic Las Vegas Guardian Angel Cathedral as well as groundbreaking work that promoted African American homeownership in the valley. A little known but fascinating fact is that Williams learned to draw upside down to accommodate white clients who were not comfortable sitting next to him as he sketched their home, their hotel, their hospital or their project.
In the 1940s, Williams was asked to help create a solution to Nevada’s housing shortage. What is now known as historic Berkley Square on Las Vegas’ westside was originally developed as a segregated community for Las Vegas’ growing Black population that included many returning veterans. In 1947, investors joined the city to petition the Federal Housing Administration to develop this 40-acre parcel and enable Black veterans to secure loans through the federal GI Bill. In 2009, Berkley Square was added to the U.S. National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places as an example of a neighborhood of mid-century houses designed by an important architect and built for African Americans.
In Henderson, Williams was commissioned in 1941 to design 1,000 homes to house workers making munitions and plane parts for the war effort at the Basic Magnesium plant. The development was known as Carver Park, named after George Washington Carver, a scientist and inventor. While the homes were intended to serve as temporary housing, many are still standing as part of the area’s World War II history that includes thousands of “Basic Townsite” homes.
According to the Paul Revere Williams American Architect Project, Nevada’s “wild west” lifestyle inspired Williams’ creativity with unconventional yet lasting ideas that have now become iconic landmarks of the valley’s interesting and diverse architectural landscape.
The Moulin Rouge sign that was reassembled and reilluminated last year at the Neon Museum is another important icon of Black history. Opening in 1955, the Moulin Rouge was the first major integrated hotel and casino. In the early 1960s, Black entertainers were not allowed to stay in hotels and resorts on the Strip, despite being headline performers in those same hotels. Neither were African Americans allowed to attend these performances. So, with the help of Dr. James McMillan, then-president of the Las Vegas chapter of the NAACP, a citywide protest was threatened unless an agreement could be forged to allow entertainers to stay in the hotels where they performed, and to allow African Americans to be part of the audience. McMillan met with city officials and business owners at the Moulin Rouge, and the group came to an agreement that was the beginning of desegregation in most casinos. It is now known as the Moulin Rouge Agreement.
Years later, the Moulin Rouge would be owned by Black entrepreneur and civic leader Sarann Knight-Preddy, the first Black woman in Nevada to receive a gaming license for a previous club in which she was a partner — the Tonga Club in Hawthorne. Over the years, she would form several women’s political organizations and was the first president of the Nevada Black Chamber of Commerce. When she began working at Jerry’s Nugget Casino, she was influential in breaking barriers for women to work as dealers in casinos. She was granted multiple awards for her accomplishments, including an honorary doctorate from UNLV.
Also on display at the museum is signage from the Silver Slipper, the site of a 1950s NAACP program for Black History Week, as well as signage from Fitzgerald’s, now The D. Fitzgerald’s was bought in 2001 by Don Barden, the first Black casino owner in Las Vegas, following a successful career in real estate and cable television.
Like many other institutions across the country, the Neon Museum is more closely examining and re-evaluating its own policies and culture relative to diversity, equity and inclusion through an enlightened lens, largely as a result of 2020’s long-overdue rallying cry for worldwide social justice and equality. We are proud of the strides we are making to ensure the museum is a place of diversity and inclusion for everyone — for our staff, our visitors, and for our community — so all can join in our celebration of Las Vegas history and the stories behind the neon.
Uri Vaknin, in addition to being the board chair of The Neon Museum, is a partner in the private equity firm KRE Capital LLC. He has been a resident of Las Vegas since 2014.
