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Brian Shepherd oral history interview: transcript

Date
2020-07-13
Description

Oral history interview of Brian Shepherd conducted by Claytee D. White on July 13, 2020 for the Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project. Brian Shepherd, Chief of Staff of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1107, represents health care and public sector employees across the state of Nevada. SEIU advocates for fair wages, quality health care, and the "secret ballot" for all union employees. Shepherd discusses his work with the union, racism, discrimination, inequality, organizing protests, the Black Lives Matter movement, and social justice.

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Jewish Federation correspondence, meeting minutes, and other records, item 35

Description

Jewish Federation of Las Vegas Board meeting minutes, December 5, 1990.

Fernandez, Edith, 1972-

Dr. Edith Fernandez is a native Las Vegan, a Chicana American. In the 1950s, her parents emigrated from Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico and joined family already residing in Las Vegas area since the 1920s. The Fernandez family of three children grew up in Charleston Heights as one of a very few Latinx families in the predominantly white community.

Person

Transcript of interview with Billy Paul Smith by Claytee White, October 3, 2013

Date
2013-10-03
Description

Chemist, mathematician, and health physicist Billy Paul Smith donates time to tutor young people in hopes of attracting more youth into the fields of math and science. Born in 1942 and schooled in segregated black schools in Shreveport, Louisiana, and Texarkana, Texas, he graduated from high school at age fifteen and enrolled at Prairie View A&M University, where he trained with the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) and earned his Bachelor’s degree in chemistry and in 1964 his Master’s degrees in chemistry and math. Most young U.S. Army officers in 1964 went to Vietnam, but Billy’s math and science background steered him to the Army Chemical Corps, where he was quickly selected to join a new team. The team was to develop responses to nuclear weapon accidents and worked under the Defense Atomic Support Agency (DASA) in Albuquerque, New Mexico. At the same time, Billy completed the Weapons Ordinance Army course on classified information relating to the U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal. In this interview, Billy talks about his service with DASA and his subsequent twenty-seven years working at the Nevada Test Site in a variety of positions with Reynolds Electrical and Engineering Company, Inc. (REECo), a company that had “percentagewise more blacks in management positions than any other [Las Vegas] company.” He experienced the quiet racism of Las Vegas residential segregation when he tried to purchase a house in a neighborhood he liked and the unexpected kindness of the REECo general manager, Ron Keen, who made sure the Smith family could live where they wanted to live. He talks about Area 51 and explains underground testing activity and offers the scientific and ecological reasons why scientists deemed Yucca Mountain safe to store nuclear waste. After retiring at fifty-two, Billy and a colleague formed an independent instrumentation company, which, from 1995–2005 provided and calibrated radiological measurement and detection instruments for the decommissioning and closure of the Rocky Flats nuclear plant in Golden, Colorado. During that time, Billy rented an apartment in Boulder, but he and Jackie maintained their Las Vegas home, where they still reside. Billy shares memories of places he and his wife used to enjoy on the Westside and tells of their longtime friends in the black community. He also talks about developing his philosophy of philanthropy through Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity and discusses becoming a member of the Knowledge Fund Advisory Council for the Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED) and the advisory council for the Nevada System of Higher Education.

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Meeting minutes for Consolidated Student Senate, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, May 23, 1978

Date
1978-05-03
Description
Agenda and meeting minutes for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Student Senate. CSUN Session 7 Meeting Minutes and Agendas.

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