Claytee White

When Claytee White relocated to Las Vegas in 1992, she had no intention of returning to a university classroom for the first time since earning her undergraduate degree nearly two decades earlier.

Then White began reading some fictional accounts about American history, and with each turn of the page, the ever-inquisitive history buff wondered: Is there a good amount of truth buried in this “fiction”?

“I became curious about many of the events that I had not encountered in past history classes,” White says. “Were these events true or part fiction? Each book caused me to want to know more.”

So, White called UNLV and inquired about classes related to Black history, Black studies, women’s history, and women’s studies. Soon enough, she was back on a college campus soaking up knowledge.

“I enrolled just to see if I could coexist alongside 19- and 20-year-old students,” she recalls. “But as soon as I began to take classes and became steeped in all of this richness, I was hooked. I enjoyed studying, which gave me the confidence to apply for the History Department’s graduate program.”

White was accepted and quickly realized that she was hardly a lone wolf as an older student — in fact, UNLV had a sizable contingent of nontraditional students returning to college to complete degrees.

“My timing,” she says, “was perfect.”

Turns out it was perfect for UNLV, as well. Because four years after White received her graduate degree in American history, the university was on the hunt for someone to run the newly formed Oral History Research Center. 

White — who at the time was living in North Carolina after working toward her doctorate at the College of William & Mary — received a phone call encouraging her to apply for the position. She did, got the job, returned to campus, and has spent the past two decades directing the team that’s responsible for chronicling Southern Nevada’s past — both the good and the bad — through the collection of first-hand accounts of historical events.

Under White’s leadership, the Oral History Research Center — which is housed under University Libraries — has conducted more than 4,000 interviews with subjects who have spoken with authority on a wide range of topics.

Among the documented projects: the origins and early growth of Las Vegas; the history of early healthcare in Las Vegas; the historic John S. Park and West Charleston neighborhoods; and the little-known musicians who played behind some of the legends of the Las Vegas Strip.

Other oral history projects have shone a light on Southern Nevada’s rich — and sometimes complicated and controversial — cultural history. These particular accounts have highlighted the impacts of such underrepresented groups as the Black, Latinx, and Asian American Pacific Islanders communities.

To White, such storytelling efforts are critical to ensuring that current and future generations have access to an accurate accounting of some of the most pivotal moments in Southern Nevada history — and there’s much more to come.

In fact, one project recently launched by the Oral History Research Center will tell the story of Las Vegas’ evolution as a sports town. Another will delve deep into the events surrounding the deadly Dec. 6 on-campus shooting.

Indeed, it’s difficult to understate the pivotal role that White has played in making sure so many historical events are properly documented and archived — although she fully admits it was a role she never intended to pursue.

“I had no idea that I had an interest in preserving history until I participated in my first workshops to learn about oral history,” White says. “After completing those workshops and a class taught by Dr. Jay Coughtry, the volunteers — all female — decided we would start the first oral history project: Women in Gaming and Entertainment.

“Prior to all this, I had no thoughts about the preservation process. I just wanted to learn the history of this unique place that was referred to as the ‘Mississippi of the West.’ But once I entered the field of oral history, preservation was just a natural progression.”

What words would you use to describe your experience as a UNLV student?

Fun, challenging, rewarding, and enlightening. I had time to study, and I enjoyed the classroom discussions. And, because I had lived some of what we were studying, I was in the unique position that I could participate from the reading as well as from personal experiences.

What led to the creation of the Oral History Research Center, and how and when did you become involved?

The History Department decided that it was time for UNLV to collect the history of our city because the UNR Oral History Program was not funded well enough for them to include Southern Nevada in its geographical collecting area.

After finishing my graduate degree at UNLV, I stayed in Las Vegas for another year and applied to Ph.D. programs around the country while taking a few Black studies classes under Roosevelt Fitzgerald. He had written about the Las Vegas Black experience in the local Las Vegas Voice newspaper. I also met Elmer Russo, who had researched Blacks throughout Nevada.

I was accepted to the College of Williams & Mary’s doctoral program, and after completing my classroom work, I moved to North Carolina to live with my mother instead of starting my dissertation. About a month after my mother passed away in 2002, I received a phone call inviting me to apply as the director of the UNLV Oral History Research Center.

While I was away, the History Department and Special Collections & Archives had decided that this new center should be housed in University Libraries. I flew to Las Vegas for a wedding and applied for the position at the same time. Both ventures were successful, and with funding in place, the center opened in August 2003.

Under your guidance, the OHRC has conducted more than 4,000 interviews with members of the Las Vegas community in an effort to document history. Looking back on those interviews, which stand out in your memory most?

Many, many oral history interviews stand out in my memory. The two that I will mention are the first interview (Hazel & Jimmy Gay) collected as part of the Women in Gaming and Entertainment Project before there was an Oral History Center, and the first one (Darrell Luce) collected in 2003 when the center launched. 

Hazel and Jimmy migrated to Las Vegas from Fordyce, Arkansas, in 1947. Jimmy was not allowed to sit for the exam to become a mortician, but he was the first Black hired in a professional position at the Sands Hotel Casino. From this position, he chaired the NAACP’s annual Freedom Fund Fundraiser. The money raised in Las Vegas helped to fund integration efforts across the country. One of the members of the NAACP’s national board stated that during those years, the national office received its largest donation sums from the Las Vegas chapter. I was awestruck.

Darrell Luce grew up in Las Vegas, and his family owned a small hardware store downtown. At some point during the building of the Hoover Dam, the family decided to open a small shop in Boulder City. So, as a little boy, Darrell got to see the dam in each phase of construction. As a young man, he joined the military, and during the Cold War, he remembered being among the soldiers used by the federal government to test the spread of radiation emitted by bomb blasts at the Nevada Test Site.

Military men were put in trenches dug at intervals from the blasts. I was mortified.

What is the one interview you tried to land but, for whatever reason, simply couldn’t? And, does it still gnaw at you?

Yes, it gnaws at me. But within the next 18 months, I may finally get that interview — but I’ll never give away the identity because he knows who he is and may acquiesce.

Let’s just say that we never lack for great narrators, but we don’t always have the funds to process all of our interviews properly.

You’re one of five founders of the Las Vegas Black Historical Society. Describe the organization’s mission and its importance.

The original organization is no longer in service; I am the only founder left. Today, there is a group called The Greater Westside Historic and Cultural Preservation Society that has a broader focus.

The original group was important because it was founded to honor the work of many, many members of Southern Nevada’s Black community.

What are three interviewing tips that every aspiring historian, documentarian, and journalist should know and incorporate?

First, learn the technique of listening with your entire being — not just your ears, but your eyes, brains, heart, and experiences.

Second, conduct your research before you meet the narrator.

Lastly, follow-up any incomplete stories from narrators with a clearly stated question in an open-ended fashion. This is where the second tip becomes important — because the better your research, the better your follow-up questions.

Every career is filled with challenges and rewards. What is one of the greatest challenges you have encountered, and what has been your most meaningful professional reward?

The greatest challenge is money. Collecting and preserving oral histories is expensive. Over the years, we have begged from the depths of the sheer importance of our mission.

The greatest rewards include intimately meeting so many interesting and important Nevadans.