Las Vegas and Clark County have exploded in the last few decades. The growth has been sometimes painful and sometimes exhilarating. And for much of our history, women have played a key role in building and planning for Southern Nevada. Think Virginia Valentine, Pat Mulroy, Thalia Dondero. Think Margi Grein, Carol Vallardo and Ann O'Connell.

About 25 people gathered Saturday afternoon at the West Las Vegas Library to remember the history of slavery in America and commemorate the day in 1865 when Texas slaves first learned that they were free. The gathering was one of five events being held by the National Juneteenth Observance Foundation to honor Juneteenth, an observance of that day — June 19, 1865 — that came more than two years after President Abe Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation.

Many of the remaining Las Vegas civil rights pioneers gathered at the Westside School last week for the premiere of a documentary that chronicles Southern Nevada’s African-American community.

Ruby Duncan and five other women who fought for Southern Nevada welfare recipients’ rights in the 1970s were celebrated as pioneers at the North Las Vegas school that bears her name.

The premiere of the 50 minute AfAm Documentary (1950s - 1972) will take place at the Westside School on February 16 at 3:00 - 5:00 with an exhibit with the photos of Clinton Wright.

Yvette Williams was 19 when the landmark TV miniseries “Roots” aired over eight nights in January 1977.

Before the world knew Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Walter Scott, Freddie Gray, Philando Castile, Terence Crutcher and Keith Scott for how their lives ended — police bullets or brute force — Las Vegas had grieved such deaths.

It would have been difficult to imagine back in 1942 that a small boarding house on F Street and Adams Avenue—on the black side of a deeply segregated small town—would still be standing more than 70 years later, let alone part of a longstanding community conversation, even when it had been deemed condemnable so many years later.