Part of an interview with Eugene Buford conducted by Claytee D. White on September 12, 2006. In the clip, Buford reflects on changes in Las Vegas spurred by integration.
Eugene Buford, 2006 September 12. OH-00145. [Audio recording] Oral History Research Center, Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada.
English
What was the major change in this city or some of the major changes that you have seen? Well, there were no major changes until they started integration. Up till then, everything was status quo. There was no difference. Then things started changing because the blacks wanted jobs and they wanted better jobs than just the maids and the porters. I worked for different hotels out there as bar boy and I got to where I was pretty good. And then another young man named Reuben -- he and I went to school together; he was a couple years older than me -- but he got to be a real sharp bartender. And he had a personality that everyone loved. And he went on to be one of the first black bartenders on the Strip. Then from then on, there was people coming in from different places and they knew how a lot of black people from larger cities knew how to come into an organization. So, therefore, they came in and they were the ones that really helped the black people that were here to get these different jobs because they would get a job and they were good at it and blah-blah-blah-blah. The other people over here say, well, we'll get us one of them, you know. Yeah.