October 4, 2023 • 23 mins
JBMV Discussion w/ Louie Overstreet, of Las Vegas, NV. We discuss African American history in Alaska and Nevada.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:11):
Welcome to the Just Buy My Vote podcast.
I am Joseph Simmons,
the host and also author of the new book Just Buy My Vote,
African American Voting Rights and the Chicago Condition.
Before I introduce my guest,
I've had a few questions about why I am so emphatic about the JBMV Avatar.
(00:33):
The easiest way to describe that is in my writing of my book Just Buy My Vote.
The book has eight chapters and just over 1000 references or notes or could we say sources?
So throughout the book,
in many ways,
I was seeking the best source on whatever the specific subject matter was and that is where the JBMV Avatar came from.
(01:00):
So recognizing, if I wanted to know and could benefit from learning these things,
then so would a younger generation JBMV Avatar. While still hopefully providing interesting and valuable content for listeners of all ages and walks.
Having said that my guest today is one of the most interesting individuals.
(01:26):
I've had the opportunity to speak with Mr Louis Overstreet among many things served nearly a decade as CEO of the Urban Chamber of Commerce in Las Vegas.
And before that he was advocating for civil rights in America's last frontier,
which I find particularly interesting on the board of directors at the Anchorage NAACP and serving as president of the Alaska Black Caucus,
(01:56):
a huge professional and inspirational leader,
Louie Overstreet.
Welcome to the Just Buy My Vote podcast.
Thank you,
Joseph.
My pleasure,
sir.
There are several things we could talk about in the time we have.
However,
I know,
you know,
a lot about sources having authored several books yourself,
please describe one of your favorite sources.
(02:18):
Well,
how is the research that I did in order to write the two history books,
one on the history of Blacks in Alaska called Black Steps.
Yeah.
Uh I'm sorry.
Uh The one I wrote about Black Black Steps in the Desert sand is the one I wrote about here in Nevada and of Alaska.
It was called Black On the Background of White.
(02:39):
So both of those were trying to play his own words in terms of the snow in Alaska and the desert sands here in Nevada.
But what it,
what brought my is is when I moved to Alaska in 1975 to work on the oil pipeline as a civil engineer.
Uh There were a number of older folks who had a good memory dating back to the turn of the 20 century,
(03:05):
but there was no record of history.
So I was able to meet a number of those and,
and make tape recordings of the interview I did to them.
And then I went to the library there in Alaska and did a lot of research in the archive files.
And surprisingly,
I found a lot of photos that allowed me to put a book together.
(03:26):
One of the more interesting facts was that during World War Two,
they were having problems uh signing troops,
black troops,
particularly in the segregated army to duty overseas.
But Alaska being a territory at the time,
it was considered overseas.
(03:47):
So they signed black troops to help build the ALCA highway which ran from Seattle all the way to uh Fairbanks,
Alaska down into Anchorage.
And over a third of the people who worked on that road and completed it in eight months were black troops,
but it was considered overseas assignment.
(04:09):
So they were able to solve two problems,
get the road built for national defense purposes and to be able to assign troops such as the NAACP and other organizations were,
were,
were all over Roosevelt back about our participation in World War Two.
Very interesting.
So that was part of the Roosevelts plan and uh he brought troops in from all over the nation.
(04:35):
Yes,
we were.
But ironically,
the troops that are assigned to build a highway were both he trained in the South in Louisiana and other southern states.
So it was such a vast distance uh difference that it made it very difficult to serve and,
and probably the most interesting fact,
(04:58):
there was a general named Simon Buckner who was the grandson of a civil war general,
a southern civil war general who was a very good combat general.
He died in the Pacific later.
But at the time he was in charge of constructing the highway.
Highway is a probably loose term.
(05:18):
It was a gravel road over 2000 miles long.
But the,
the problem he had,
he thought black folks should not be assigned to that duty because get this,
they were,
they were in a,
in a mingle with,
with Eskimos and native Alaska and create quote enable race of people.
(05:43):
I mean,
that was a,
I have the letter that uh when I was doing research,
I called the Pentagon and they have a gentleman at the time,
had just written a book on the deployment of black troops throughout our history.
And I have the cop uh uh the copy of the actual letter that he wrote saying that in his words.
(06:05):
Amazing.
Wow.
So that those were the kind of things we had to overcome the climate,
the resistance to our participation and had bigoted leadership.
So that was a trifecta of uh uh of,
of,
of obstructions we had to overcome.
Excuse me.
Absolutely.
(06:26):
What was your work as the uh uh uh president of uh the Alaska Black caucus?
It amazingly,
it was A mixed group of civic leaders and a couple of elected officials.
We didn't have that many elected officials in Alaska.
So it was more of a civil rights advocacy group and economic development where we would provide input to the state legislature in terms of uh laws and bills that need to be passed to provide equal opportunity for blacks in Alaska.
(06:59):
So that's how we came into being.
But ironically,
we had such a,
a broad knowledge of issues and we did things in such a professional manner.
The breakdown was probably 60% black,
you know,
30% white and another 10% Hispanic and a few uh natives.
(07:20):
So it was uh elected kind of a group that have the name of the Alaska black caucus.
Sure.
I thought that was particularly interesting because I had never really thought about many black folks in Alaska.
Yeah.
No,
it was a few of us,
most of us came up through actually result of World War Two coming there and,
and staying,
but also there are two major military bases outside of Anchorage,
(07:45):
Fort Elmendorf,
I mean Eldor Air Force Base and Fort Richardson army base and up in near five base,
there's another Fort Richardson is a,
is a army base.
So those are the things that attracted black folks there.
And then with the uh lifestyle people being basically friendly,
(08:05):
you can hunt and fish camp out.
So some people,
uh that was such a unique experience for them.
They just after they busted out of the service,
they just decided to stay interesting.
They decide to stay.
Yeah,
interesting.
How did you happen to come to Las Vegas?
You know,
after,
(08:26):
uh,
when we really went up there it was gonna really be an,
uh,
three,
year state that was a commitment to,
uh,
to the pipeline company.
But like I say,
I got up there and got involved and somehow the people tricked me into being the president of the,
of the ABC.
And uh uh two year,
a three year state turned into a 18 year stay for me and a 20 year stay for my wife because she only needed two more years to retire from teaching up there in Alaska at the time.
(08:56):
If you taught for 20 years,
you could retire at any age.
So,
you know,
if you,
if you got out right,
undergraduate school 22 and start teaching in Alaska,
you could retire at 42 and pick up a whole new career and have that money,
money coming in.
So it's,
uh it was an economic opportunity that we were able to fortunately take care of.
(09:17):
Uh-huh.
And then,
and then what brought you to Las Vegas when we uh uh again,
I set at a job in Chicago as a general manager of a,
of a company that built the power plant.
I don't know if you heard of mccormick Place,
but it's,
it's the biggest convention center in North America and our company built the power plant to supply the heating and cooling for that facility.
(09:43):
So that,
that was a four year commitment.
And after that,
we completed on time and on budget and they were passing out nice bonuses for that effort.
So we decided where they want to stay,
you know,
climate.
After being in Alaska,
we didn't want to be in a,
you know,
in a snowy climate anymore.
Where were people likely come to visit?
(10:04):
And there was always something to do.
So we do.
That's how we picked uh Las Vegas and we had been here back and forth over time.
But uh Lord knows I didn't know about July and August.
That's funny.
Of course,
of course,
you know,
I'm from Chicago as well.
So I always say I am from Chicago.
(10:26):
Yes,
sir.
I knew that we had a connection there and I always say that uh I would put up with July and August in Las Vegas.
As long as I don't have to deal with January and February in Chicago.
You know the story about Chicago,
I'm sure we have that.
Yes,
this man,
the hawk comes out in November and December and the wind blows so hard,
(10:47):
they have ropes on those bridges when you cross the Chicago river.
I,
I found out they were alive but it does blow hard in the winter.
Oh,
yes.
Oh,
yes,
sir.
Yeah.
You know,
if you're not holding on to something you could get blown away.
I used to take those winters personal.
Oh,
yeah.
Yes,
you should.
(11:09):
One of,
one of the,
one of the other things that I,
I was reading is,
um,
you have a book called Black Steps In the Desert Sands.
A chronicle of African Americans involvement in the growth of Las Vegas,
Nevada.
Tell us a little bit about that,
please.
It was sort of a similar experience I had in Alaska where I come here that people are uh a lot more involved,
(11:35):
but they were primarily from two locations for Arkansas and for uh some place,
oh,
the town of Louisiana.
And uh but then I then went to the library here again,
our research in the files.
Uh uh and I found out that uh most of the black participation was up north before there were an Anchorage.
(11:58):
So I got a lot of information about the black newspapers and the black churches and the uh which is probably portrayed in movies.
This is the most enlightening and in all the movies about uh Northern Nevada and California,
there was a,
a gentleman who found a passage way between the northern California and,
(12:19):
and Nevada through the mountains.
And his name was uh Beckworth and I,
and all the cowboy movie,
he betrayed as a,
as a,
as a white man.
But it turns out Beckworth is a black man and that was just so surprising to me and I looked up his history from there from there on and also at the time,
the richest taxpayer up north was a black cattleman named Ben,
(12:43):
who it's been so long since I went about Ben Palmer was his name and he went up to Seattle and drove 50 100 head of cattle from Seattle area into Reno and Carson City area in Nevada.
And he was at the time that was shortly after the civil war,
(13:04):
he was the largest taxpayer in northern Nevada.
So those are the kind of things you discover.
Then you come down to Anchorage,
excuse me,
Las Vegas,
they found out,
uh,
when the time they reenacted,
uh,
legalized gambling in 1930 or 31 blacks owned 38 parcel in downtown Las Vegas.
(13:29):
And they made them sell the property and move to what they now call historical Las Vegas,
West Las Vegas.
But that came back because the area in which their forces into was called was west of the railroad tracks.
So that's how,
that's how it became known as the west side.
And we stayed there until they passed the,
(13:50):
you know,
the,
uh,
uh,
a Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Now,
you come to those figures and you pretty much find us living everywhere,
you know,
or anywhere we could,
uh,
economically afford.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
I always wondered actually,
uh,
where that historically west side came from because,
(14:11):
you know,
if you look at the map of Las Vegas,
the west side is not on the west side.
Right,
right now,
that was the rest of the railroad tracks.
Now,
Jill uh geographically,
I don't know what direction it is,
but uh I think the mayor was named Craven.
I had to go back and like you say,
when you write the book is uh I wrote that book 25 years ago.
(14:33):
So every now and then I will lead through it.
But yeah,
he was a real bigoted man and it was tough and then we had to fight to get some of us to be able to work on the Hoover Dam and so on and so forth,
right?
Because you're an engineer by training.
Yes.
How is it that you wound up at the urban Chamber of Commerce?
(14:54):
And it looks like you were there from about 99 to 2007,
a lot,
a lot going on during that time.
Yo,
we were fortunate to spearhead a couple of things.
We had a,
a national convention before I took over a,
a guy named Howard Phelps.
Great dude.
He had a national conventional contracts with the federal government.
(15:17):
And so he brought a lot of people in the federal government into Las Vegas to teach you how to get contracts with the federal government.
Before that,
Bob Bailey had done a lot of things with the economic development uh authority and he was legendary in that regard.
But as he grew older and more and more or less started tending to his personal business.
(15:40):
Then Harvey Phillips came in and he left for Texas and I took over and I uh the two major things we did,
we had back and back annual conference on gaming first time in the history of the state that a black organization hosted two national conventions on gaming.
And we had a number of politicians and business leaders and were able to work out work agreements with the hotels.
(16:08):
As you remember,
they were expanding,
then buying up properties become larger and larger.
We were able to leverage that and to get sponsorship for national convention as a result of that for the first time,
you got blacks uh in programs of management,
senior management and also providing goods and services to the hotel.
(16:30):
And we were on a tear there for about six or seven years.
Then some personalities came in and uh you know how that used to happen with us and we,
we lost quite a bit of leverage.
Now they begin to bounce back with you and others who are beginning to make trails on a I should say,
(16:50):
selfish,
a self-motivated basis,
but the collective need to move forward.
You can't name one black organization here that has the power to go in and demand something can be done now.
And that's a sad commentary on life in Las Vegas in 2023.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
(17:10):
And that's,
that's probably not unique to Las Vegas,
right?
Oh,
no.
It's,
that's a national phenomenon but it tend to be,
uh,
uh,
more pronounced here because our educational base was so lacking.
You know,
a lot of people came here were able to get jobs as porters at the airport and cleaning up the casinos which,
(17:33):
you know,
doesn't require a lot of education.
It requires,
you know,
doesn't say it requires skills and,
uh,
and being able to work hard,
it certainly requires those two things.
But to be able to have the disposable income and the time to organize uh that was lacking.
And also you had a trend for a lot of people or a retirement age back east in Detroit,
(17:57):
Cleveland,
Philly Pittsburgh,
who was moving out here to retire.
So we were able to capture that knowledge base,
if not actively involved as a source of knowledge to implement certain things because they were aware of how we became uh economic and political active back in the uh Eastern and uh Midwest during the sixties and seventies right now,
(18:25):
I'm gonna shift gears just a bit,
Louie.
Uh You mentioned something about income,
of course,
and,
and I saw a statement that you made as one of the most significant issues that this nation has to deal with.
And that is the wealth gap has created an quote unquote,
unbridgeable valley between rich and poor.
(18:47):
Explain that for us.
OK,
a couple of ways you can explain,
uh you look at the white folks,
they have in inherited generational wealth that they didn't have to use to support a lifestyle.
And so 12 or three generations later that has grown into where they have a lot of income,
(19:09):
a passive income just from the investments.
Whereas for black folks,
this would be probably the first generation,
if not the 1st,
2nd cause some of my parents did leave us a used car,
a raggedy house and maybe insurance policy.
So those were so if we didn't need to live off those,
we started investing that.
(19:29):
But this generation uh if there are a number of professionals or we be able to uh provide a level of income for ourselves to educate our kids and then have a nice little insurance policy.
And you know,
in Las Vegas,
it doesn't take much of a house to have quite a really value in it.
So this may be reflective of the rest of the nation,
(19:53):
excuse me.
Well,
this would be the the first generation where they can invest,
say a nominal six figures that they don't have to live off.
And then then if they can mass that exceeded this generation,
then you can see over the next several generation,
we will start closing that gap based on inheriting generational wealth.
(20:16):
But up until this uh last generation,
that wasn't possible in America.
Do you see,
I mean you mentioned the fact that really,
it's all about families uh building wealth and that kind of thing I,
I is that the only solution?
No.
Uh,
well,
education now you,
uh,
to achieve things,
but now you look at all the efforts to do away with affirmative action.
(20:40):
It will make it tough on this generation.
I,
I don't think it will be successful unless we do not fight back in a manner.
I know we are capable of doing if we just sit here and take it again and we will find ourselves in a place that with artificial intelligence,
robotics and all that crap coming online.
(21:01):
If we don't participate in those endeavors,
we're gonna be so marginalized,
you know,
and not only the,
you know,
our overpopulation of,
of prison for similar offenses as a white counterparts,
man,
the uh future of America relative to Black involvement and participation is very questionable.
(21:25):
And so when you mention fight back,
I tend to think voting,
what do you think?
Oh,
same thing a and,
and making candidates know you if you can't afford to contribute to campaigns,
like,
say,
I was fortunate to be able to do shit,
go down to that campaign and volunteer.
And if you didn't,
if you,
(21:45):
you going well enough for knowing around there and they win,
they almost have to give you some kind of job,
you know,
just out of a,
a guilt association.
Hey,
yeah,
I saw uh Joseph and Louie going into the office,
you stumble over.
Yeah,
you stumbling on them because we got to grab you there and get that job.
(22:06):
That's so,
you know,
there are ways to participate,
organize,
you know,
little things in your neighborhood.
But,
you know,
but seriously voting is the ticket.
And after all these years,
Joseph,
it's amazing to me that uh enough of us don't understand that.
Why do you think that is Louie?
II?
I,
hey,
(22:27):
I spent a lifetime trying to solve that but newspaper column since January of 1980 uh for four different newspapers in the magazine.
And Lord knows I haven't figured it out yet.
Very interesting,
very interesting.
Well,
this,
this has been,
this has been a real pleasure for me,
(22:47):
Louie Overstreet.
Thank you so much and thank you for sharing with our listeners today.
Well,
it's been a fantastic time.
Thank you so much.
Anything I can do,
please have people check in with you.
You feel free to give my telephone number or my email will do I,
I do whatever I can,
man.
Thank you so much,
sir.
(23:08):
Well,
well,
we hope you enjoyed that episode of the Just Buy My Vote podcast.
We're looking forward to the next episodes.
You can find the book at Just Buy My Vote dot com and feel free to follow us at Just Buy My Vote podcast dot com for notification on upcoming podcasts and events.
(23:32):
We thank you for the privilege of your time and until next time Just Buy My Vote.
Welcome to the Just Buy My Vote podcast.
I am Joseph Simmons,
the host and also author of the new book Just Buy My Vote,
African American Voting Rights and the Chicago Condition.
Before I introduce my guest,
I've had a few questions about why I am so emphatic about the JBMV Avatar.
(00:33):
The easiest way to describe that is in my writing of my book Just Buy My Vote.
The book has eight chapters and just over 1000 references or notes or could we say sources?
So throughout the book,
in many ways,
I was seeking the best source on whatever the specific subject matter was and that is where the JBMV Avatar came from.
(01:00):
So recognizing, if I wanted to know and could benefit from learning these things,
then so would a younger generation JBMV Avatar. While still hopefully providing interesting and valuable content for listeners of all ages and walks.
Having said that my guest today is one of the most interesting individuals.
(01:26):
I've had the opportunity to speak with Mr Louis Overstreet among many things served nearly a decade as CEO of the Urban Chamber of Commerce in Las Vegas.
And before that he was advocating for civil rights in America's last frontier,
which I find particularly interesting on the board of directors at the Anchorage NAACP and serving as president of the Alaska Black Caucus,
(01:56):
a huge professional and inspirational leader,
Louie Overstreet.
Welcome to the Just Buy My Vote podcast.
Thank you,
Joseph.
My pleasure,
sir.
There are several things we could talk about in the time we have.
However,
I know,
you know,
a lot about sources having authored several books yourself,
please describe one of your favorite sources.
(02:18):
Well,
how is the research that I did in order to write the two history books,
one on the history of Blacks in Alaska called Black Steps.
Yeah.
Uh I'm sorry.
Uh The one I wrote about Black Black Steps in the Desert sand is the one I wrote about here in Nevada and of Alaska.
It was called Black On the Background of White.
(02:39):
So both of those were trying to play his own words in terms of the snow in Alaska and the desert sands here in Nevada.
But what it,
what brought my is is when I moved to Alaska in 1975 to work on the oil pipeline as a civil engineer.
Uh There were a number of older folks who had a good memory dating back to the turn of the 20 century,
(03:05):
but there was no record of history.
So I was able to meet a number of those and,
and make tape recordings of the interview I did to them.
And then I went to the library there in Alaska and did a lot of research in the archive files.
And surprisingly,
I found a lot of photos that allowed me to put a book together.
(03:26):
One of the more interesting facts was that during World War Two,
they were having problems uh signing troops,
black troops,
particularly in the segregated army to duty overseas.
But Alaska being a territory at the time,
it was considered overseas.
(03:47):
So they signed black troops to help build the ALCA highway which ran from Seattle all the way to uh Fairbanks,
Alaska down into Anchorage.
And over a third of the people who worked on that road and completed it in eight months were black troops,
but it was considered overseas assignment.
(04:09):
So they were able to solve two problems,
get the road built for national defense purposes and to be able to assign troops such as the NAACP and other organizations were,
were,
were all over Roosevelt back about our participation in World War Two.
Very interesting.
So that was part of the Roosevelts plan and uh he brought troops in from all over the nation.
(04:35):
Yes,
we were.
But ironically,
the troops that are assigned to build a highway were both he trained in the South in Louisiana and other southern states.
So it was such a vast distance uh difference that it made it very difficult to serve and,
and probably the most interesting fact,
(04:58):
there was a general named Simon Buckner who was the grandson of a civil war general,
a southern civil war general who was a very good combat general.
He died in the Pacific later.
But at the time he was in charge of constructing the highway.
Highway is a probably loose term.
(05:18):
It was a gravel road over 2000 miles long.
But the,
the problem he had,
he thought black folks should not be assigned to that duty because get this,
they were,
they were in a,
in a mingle with,
with Eskimos and native Alaska and create quote enable race of people.
(05:43):
I mean,
that was a,
I have the letter that uh when I was doing research,
I called the Pentagon and they have a gentleman at the time,
had just written a book on the deployment of black troops throughout our history.
And I have the cop uh uh the copy of the actual letter that he wrote saying that in his words.
(06:05):
Amazing.
Wow.
So that those were the kind of things we had to overcome the climate,
the resistance to our participation and had bigoted leadership.
So that was a trifecta of uh uh of,
of,
of obstructions we had to overcome.
Excuse me.
Absolutely.
(06:26):
What was your work as the uh uh uh president of uh the Alaska Black caucus?
It amazingly,
it was A mixed group of civic leaders and a couple of elected officials.
We didn't have that many elected officials in Alaska.
So it was more of a civil rights advocacy group and economic development where we would provide input to the state legislature in terms of uh laws and bills that need to be passed to provide equal opportunity for blacks in Alaska.
(06:59):
So that's how we came into being.
But ironically,
we had such a,
a broad knowledge of issues and we did things in such a professional manner.
The breakdown was probably 60% black,
you know,
30% white and another 10% Hispanic and a few uh natives.
(07:20):
So it was uh elected kind of a group that have the name of the Alaska black caucus.
Sure.
I thought that was particularly interesting because I had never really thought about many black folks in Alaska.
Yeah.
No,
it was a few of us,
most of us came up through actually result of World War Two coming there and,
and staying,
but also there are two major military bases outside of Anchorage,
(07:45):
Fort Elmendorf,
I mean Eldor Air Force Base and Fort Richardson army base and up in near five base,
there's another Fort Richardson is a,
is a army base.
So those are the things that attracted black folks there.
And then with the uh lifestyle people being basically friendly,
(08:05):
you can hunt and fish camp out.
So some people,
uh that was such a unique experience for them.
They just after they busted out of the service,
they just decided to stay interesting.
They decide to stay.
Yeah,
interesting.
How did you happen to come to Las Vegas?
You know,
after,
(08:26):
uh,
when we really went up there it was gonna really be an,
uh,
three,
year state that was a commitment to,
uh,
to the pipeline company.
But like I say,
I got up there and got involved and somehow the people tricked me into being the president of the,
of the ABC.
And uh uh two year,
a three year state turned into a 18 year stay for me and a 20 year stay for my wife because she only needed two more years to retire from teaching up there in Alaska at the time.
(08:56):
If you taught for 20 years,
you could retire at any age.
So,
you know,
if you,
if you got out right,
undergraduate school 22 and start teaching in Alaska,
you could retire at 42 and pick up a whole new career and have that money,
money coming in.
So it's,
uh it was an economic opportunity that we were able to fortunately take care of.
(09:17):
Uh-huh.
And then,
and then what brought you to Las Vegas when we uh uh again,
I set at a job in Chicago as a general manager of a,
of a company that built the power plant.
I don't know if you heard of mccormick Place,
but it's,
it's the biggest convention center in North America and our company built the power plant to supply the heating and cooling for that facility.
(09:43):
So that,
that was a four year commitment.
And after that,
we completed on time and on budget and they were passing out nice bonuses for that effort.
So we decided where they want to stay,
you know,
climate.
After being in Alaska,
we didn't want to be in a,
you know,
in a snowy climate anymore.
Where were people likely come to visit?
(10:04):
And there was always something to do.
So we do.
That's how we picked uh Las Vegas and we had been here back and forth over time.
But uh Lord knows I didn't know about July and August.
That's funny.
Of course,
of course,
you know,
I'm from Chicago as well.
So I always say I am from Chicago.
(10:26):
Yes,
sir.
I knew that we had a connection there and I always say that uh I would put up with July and August in Las Vegas.
As long as I don't have to deal with January and February in Chicago.
You know the story about Chicago,
I'm sure we have that.
Yes,
this man,
the hawk comes out in November and December and the wind blows so hard,
(10:47):
they have ropes on those bridges when you cross the Chicago river.
I,
I found out they were alive but it does blow hard in the winter.
Oh,
yes.
Oh,
yes,
sir.
Yeah.
You know,
if you're not holding on to something you could get blown away.
I used to take those winters personal.
Oh,
yeah.
Yes,
you should.
(11:09):
One of,
one of the,
one of the other things that I,
I was reading is,
um,
you have a book called Black Steps In the Desert Sands.
A chronicle of African Americans involvement in the growth of Las Vegas,
Nevada.
Tell us a little bit about that,
please.
It was sort of a similar experience I had in Alaska where I come here that people are uh a lot more involved,
(11:35):
but they were primarily from two locations for Arkansas and for uh some place,
oh,
the town of Louisiana.
And uh but then I then went to the library here again,
our research in the files.
Uh uh and I found out that uh most of the black participation was up north before there were an Anchorage.
(11:58):
So I got a lot of information about the black newspapers and the black churches and the uh which is probably portrayed in movies.
This is the most enlightening and in all the movies about uh Northern Nevada and California,
there was a,
a gentleman who found a passage way between the northern California and,
(12:19):
and Nevada through the mountains.
And his name was uh Beckworth and I,
and all the cowboy movie,
he betrayed as a,
as a,
as a white man.
But it turns out Beckworth is a black man and that was just so surprising to me and I looked up his history from there from there on and also at the time,
the richest taxpayer up north was a black cattleman named Ben,
(12:43):
who it's been so long since I went about Ben Palmer was his name and he went up to Seattle and drove 50 100 head of cattle from Seattle area into Reno and Carson City area in Nevada.
And he was at the time that was shortly after the civil war,
(13:04):
he was the largest taxpayer in northern Nevada.
So those are the kind of things you discover.
Then you come down to Anchorage,
excuse me,
Las Vegas,
they found out,
uh,
when the time they reenacted,
uh,
legalized gambling in 1930 or 31 blacks owned 38 parcel in downtown Las Vegas.
(13:29):
And they made them sell the property and move to what they now call historical Las Vegas,
West Las Vegas.
But that came back because the area in which their forces into was called was west of the railroad tracks.
So that's how,
that's how it became known as the west side.
And we stayed there until they passed the,
(13:50):
you know,
the,
uh,
uh,
a Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Now,
you come to those figures and you pretty much find us living everywhere,
you know,
or anywhere we could,
uh,
economically afford.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
I always wondered actually,
uh,
where that historically west side came from because,
(14:11):
you know,
if you look at the map of Las Vegas,
the west side is not on the west side.
Right,
right now,
that was the rest of the railroad tracks.
Now,
Jill uh geographically,
I don't know what direction it is,
but uh I think the mayor was named Craven.
I had to go back and like you say,
when you write the book is uh I wrote that book 25 years ago.
(14:33):
So every now and then I will lead through it.
But yeah,
he was a real bigoted man and it was tough and then we had to fight to get some of us to be able to work on the Hoover Dam and so on and so forth,
right?
Because you're an engineer by training.
Yes.
How is it that you wound up at the urban Chamber of Commerce?
(14:54):
And it looks like you were there from about 99 to 2007,
a lot,
a lot going on during that time.
Yo,
we were fortunate to spearhead a couple of things.
We had a,
a national convention before I took over a,
a guy named Howard Phelps.
Great dude.
He had a national conventional contracts with the federal government.
(15:17):
And so he brought a lot of people in the federal government into Las Vegas to teach you how to get contracts with the federal government.
Before that,
Bob Bailey had done a lot of things with the economic development uh authority and he was legendary in that regard.
But as he grew older and more and more or less started tending to his personal business.
(15:40):
Then Harvey Phillips came in and he left for Texas and I took over and I uh the two major things we did,
we had back and back annual conference on gaming first time in the history of the state that a black organization hosted two national conventions on gaming.
And we had a number of politicians and business leaders and were able to work out work agreements with the hotels.
(16:08):
As you remember,
they were expanding,
then buying up properties become larger and larger.
We were able to leverage that and to get sponsorship for national convention as a result of that for the first time,
you got blacks uh in programs of management,
senior management and also providing goods and services to the hotel.
(16:30):
And we were on a tear there for about six or seven years.
Then some personalities came in and uh you know how that used to happen with us and we,
we lost quite a bit of leverage.
Now they begin to bounce back with you and others who are beginning to make trails on a I should say,
(16:50):
selfish,
a self-motivated basis,
but the collective need to move forward.
You can't name one black organization here that has the power to go in and demand something can be done now.
And that's a sad commentary on life in Las Vegas in 2023.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
(17:10):
And that's,
that's probably not unique to Las Vegas,
right?
Oh,
no.
It's,
that's a national phenomenon but it tend to be,
uh,
uh,
more pronounced here because our educational base was so lacking.
You know,
a lot of people came here were able to get jobs as porters at the airport and cleaning up the casinos which,
(17:33):
you know,
doesn't require a lot of education.
It requires,
you know,
doesn't say it requires skills and,
uh,
and being able to work hard,
it certainly requires those two things.
But to be able to have the disposable income and the time to organize uh that was lacking.
And also you had a trend for a lot of people or a retirement age back east in Detroit,
(17:57):
Cleveland,
Philly Pittsburgh,
who was moving out here to retire.
So we were able to capture that knowledge base,
if not actively involved as a source of knowledge to implement certain things because they were aware of how we became uh economic and political active back in the uh Eastern and uh Midwest during the sixties and seventies right now,
(18:25):
I'm gonna shift gears just a bit,
Louie.
Uh You mentioned something about income,
of course,
and,
and I saw a statement that you made as one of the most significant issues that this nation has to deal with.
And that is the wealth gap has created an quote unquote,
unbridgeable valley between rich and poor.
(18:47):
Explain that for us.
OK,
a couple of ways you can explain,
uh you look at the white folks,
they have in inherited generational wealth that they didn't have to use to support a lifestyle.
And so 12 or three generations later that has grown into where they have a lot of income,
(19:09):
a passive income just from the investments.
Whereas for black folks,
this would be probably the first generation,
if not the 1st,
2nd cause some of my parents did leave us a used car,
a raggedy house and maybe insurance policy.
So those were so if we didn't need to live off those,
we started investing that.
(19:29):
But this generation uh if there are a number of professionals or we be able to uh provide a level of income for ourselves to educate our kids and then have a nice little insurance policy.
And you know,
in Las Vegas,
it doesn't take much of a house to have quite a really value in it.
So this may be reflective of the rest of the nation,
(19:53):
excuse me.
Well,
this would be the the first generation where they can invest,
say a nominal six figures that they don't have to live off.
And then then if they can mass that exceeded this generation,
then you can see over the next several generation,
we will start closing that gap based on inheriting generational wealth.
(20:16):
But up until this uh last generation,
that wasn't possible in America.
Do you see,
I mean you mentioned the fact that really,
it's all about families uh building wealth and that kind of thing I,
I is that the only solution?
No.
Uh,
well,
education now you,
uh,
to achieve things,
but now you look at all the efforts to do away with affirmative action.
(20:40):
It will make it tough on this generation.
I,
I don't think it will be successful unless we do not fight back in a manner.
I know we are capable of doing if we just sit here and take it again and we will find ourselves in a place that with artificial intelligence,
robotics and all that crap coming online.
(21:01):
If we don't participate in those endeavors,
we're gonna be so marginalized,
you know,
and not only the,
you know,
our overpopulation of,
of prison for similar offenses as a white counterparts,
man,
the uh future of America relative to Black involvement and participation is very questionable.
(21:25):
And so when you mention fight back,
I tend to think voting,
what do you think?
Oh,
same thing a and,
and making candidates know you if you can't afford to contribute to campaigns,
like,
say,
I was fortunate to be able to do shit,
go down to that campaign and volunteer.
And if you didn't,
if you,
(21:45):
you going well enough for knowing around there and they win,
they almost have to give you some kind of job,
you know,
just out of a,
a guilt association.
Hey,
yeah,
I saw uh Joseph and Louie going into the office,
you stumble over.
Yeah,
you stumbling on them because we got to grab you there and get that job.
(22:06):
That's so,
you know,
there are ways to participate,
organize,
you know,
little things in your neighborhood.
But,
you know,
but seriously voting is the ticket.
And after all these years,
Joseph,
it's amazing to me that uh enough of us don't understand that.
Why do you think that is Louie?
II?
I,
hey,
(22:27):
I spent a lifetime trying to solve that but newspaper column since January of 1980 uh for four different newspapers in the magazine.
And Lord knows I haven't figured it out yet.
Very interesting,
very interesting.
Well,
this,
this has been,
this has been a real pleasure for me,
(22:47):
Louie Overstreet.
Thank you so much and thank you for sharing with our listeners today.
Well,
it's been a fantastic time.
Thank you so much.
Anything I can do,
please have people check in with you.
You feel free to give my telephone number or my email will do I,
I do whatever I can,
man.
Thank you so much,
sir.
(23:08):
Well,
well,
we hope you enjoyed that episode of the Just Buy My Vote podcast.
We're looking forward to the next episodes.
You can find the book at Just Buy My Vote dot com and feel free to follow us at Just Buy My Vote podcast dot com for notification on upcoming podcasts and events.
(23:32):
We thank you for the privilege of your time and until next time Just Buy My Vote.
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