I first learned there was an African American community in 1998 when I happened to pick up a Los Angeles Magazine and read a story about a little known club that existed in 1955 named the Moulin Rouge.
Originally, I envisioned a documentary about the club itself. The Rouge was patterned after the original one in Paris with great food, great live music and risqué – with the first African American dancers in town. However, the more I researched, the deeper the story became.
African Americans migrated to Nevada in two separate waves – one in the 1930s and 1940s and then again in the 1950s. Most of the early migrants were southerners fleeing Jim Crow laws and looking for better jobs. Many of the African Americans made $1.50 a day picking and chopping cotton. In Vegas, they made $8 a day working in the shade. These early residents primarily came from two towns – Tallulah, Louisiana, and Fordyce, Arkansas. Later, black entertainers came in search of work. While the two groups were socially and economically miles apart, both groups served the tourism industry either on the stage or as maids and porters. It took both hard work and a clever appeal to business sense to bring about significant social and economic change.
On location in Las Vegas: Interviewing Bob Bailey
Many people ask why I’ve been working on a documentary about a place I never lived and a community I don’t have any visible ties to. However, I do have ties to these people. My mother is from a town called Cotton Plant, Arkansas, just a few hours from Fordyce.
When I worked as a reporter and now working as a documentary filmmaker, telling the stories of other people teaches me not only about them, but about myself. After speaking to several black Las Vegans, I called my mother. I asked her why she left Arkansas. I had never asked her before. She told me she was tired of picking and chopping cotton. She said she was tired of making $1.50 an hour for back-breaking work. My mother didn’t move to Vegas; she chose Missouri. However, their story is her story. Their story is my story.
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