Las Vegas Stories is a lecture series that examines the history, people, places, and things that make Vegas home. Between 1910-1970 roughly 6 million African Americans left their homes throughout the South to rebuild their lives in states throughout the North and the West. Escaping segregation and an exploitative labor regime, Black people often sought work in urban centers outside the boundaries of the Jim Crow South. This presentation by Tyler Parry, Associate Professor of African American and African Diaspora Studies at UNLV, adds to the broader story of the Great Migration by focusing upon Las Vegas, highlighting how southern Nevada’s unique economic circumstances attracted Black people seeking better opportunities, alongside the ways in which the African American community continued the fight for Civil Rights in the desert city.
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