Alphabetized streets honor black historical figures

The streets running north/south in west Las Vegas are named alphabetically from A Street, just east of Interstate 15, to N Street, just east of Martin Luther King Boulevard. About 15 years ago, when Clark County Commissioner Lawrence Weekly was a councilman for the city of Las Vegas, he thought that was something that could be improved upon.

“He wanted to get something done that would add some cultural and historic value to the Historic Westside,” said City Councilman Ricki Y. Barlow. “He held a number of neighborhood meetings, and then eventually, they went to the kids in the schools to make it a project.”

Weekly said the discussions ended with a compromise.

“There were a lot of people back then saying that the streets were worth more than just a letter,” Weekly said. “There was discussion about renaming them to reflect the rich history of the community, but other people were saying that the lettered streets were the area’s history. There was also the expense of changing everyone’s address on those streets.”

The answer was honorarily naming the 14 streets after famous black historical figures. Fifth-grade students from Kelly, Booker, Carson and Madison elementary schools presented their choices in a December 2000 ceremony. Madison was later renamed Williams Elementary School.

The choices included a wide range of figures, including performers, politicians, educators, authors and more.

The naming convention isn’t perfect. Mary McLeod Bethune’s surname is misspelled as “Buthune,” and I Street proved challenging, so the street honoring Dr. Edith Irby Jones uses her maiden name, Edith May Irby. Despite that, the streets offer a glimpse at the rich history of blacks in America that sometimes is overlooked.

The streets are also named for people with little or no connection to the valley, but many of the streets in the valley are named for people who never came here. Local historian, writer and activist Trish Geran said she understands why the names were chosen but thinks it might be time to give the honorary names a second look.

“At the time they chose the names, books on West Las Vegas history were few and far between,” Geran said. “Now there’s a lot more out there, including the oral histories Claytee White has with the UNLV oral history project. It would make more sense to name the streets after people in the community. It’s such an old and historic community.”

West Las Vegas predates Las Vegas by a year.

“The idea of naming the streets after local people of note did come up, but by that time, I was moving on,” Weekly said. “That’s a decision that the city will have to think about now.”

It seems unlikely that the names will be changing anytime soon, in part because the project is viewed as successful.

“Once you get the community involved in events and projects, they take ownership,” Barlow said of the signs. “It’s a partnership, and it has value. The community protects it. It strengthens the community.”

— A Street was named for Maya Angelou, 1928-2014. The prolific poet, author, dancer, actress, singer, journalist and lecturer wrote seven autobiographies that revealed intimate details of her struggle as a woman and a black person. She was active in the civil rights movement and recited her poem “On the Pulse of Morning” at the first inauguration of President Bill Clinton.

— B Street was named for Mary McLeod Buthune, 1875-1955. The women’s rights activist was an educator who started a private school for black students in Daytona Beach, Fla., in 1904. It later became Bethune-Cookman University. She was appointed as a national adviser to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and was known as the First Lady of the Struggle because of her commitment to improving life for blacks.

— C Street was named for Sherian Grace Cadoria, born in 1943. Cadoria was the first black female general in the U.S. Army. She retired in 1990 as a brigadier general, which made her the highest-ranking woman in the Army.

— D Street honors Dorothy Dandridge, 1922-1965. She was the first black actress to be nominated for an Academy Award.

— E Street was named for Medgar Evers, 1925-1963. The World War II veteran was a field secretary for the NAACP. His assassination inspired protests and catalyzed the civil rights movement.

— F Street honors Andrew Rube Foster, 1879-1930. Foster was a notable baseball player, manager and pioneer executive in the Negro leagues who is sometimes called the Father of Black Baseball.

— G Street honors Althea Gibson, 1927-2003. In 1956, she became the first black to win a tennis Grand Slam title in the French Open, and in 1957, she won Wimbledon and the U.S. National Championship, now called the U.S. Open. She later broke color barriers in golf.

— H Street was named for Langston Hughes, 1902-1967. The prolific writer’s works include novels, short stories, plays, poetry, operas and essays. His works feature the poor and disenfranchised.

— I Street honors Edith May Irby, born in 1927. Irby is commonly known by her married name, Dr. Edith Irby Jones. Despite dealing with segregation in school and in the hospitals where she worked as an intern, she became a doctor in 1952. She worked her way up the ladder, earning physician’s privileges in multiple hospitals in Houston but always kept a practice in the poorest part of the city to serve those who could not otherwise afford medical attention.

— J Street honors Barbara Jordan, 1936-1996 Jordan was an educator and politician who broke several color barriers. She first served in the Texas Senate and was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1972. She was considered as a running mate for Jimmy Carter. She was the first black woman to deliver the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention with a speech many consider to be one of the best. She retired from politics in 1979 and became an adjunct professor at the University of Texas.

— K Street honors Maulana Karenga, founder of Kwanzaa, born in 1941. Karenga was a doctoral student when he created Kwanzaa in 1966. The name came from “matunda ya kwanza,” the Swahili first fruit celebration. Today he holds two Ph.D.s and is professor and chairman of Africana studies at California State University, Long Beach.

— L Street was named for Ida Elizabeth Lewis, born in 1935. Lewis began her career as a financial writer for the New York Amsterdam News from 1957 to 1960. She lived in Paris in the late 1960s and wrote for several publications, including the Washington Post, the New York Times, Life magazine and L’Express. In 1971 she became the first editor-in-chief of Essence magazine and later founded Encore: American & Worldwide News. In 1998, she became the first female editor-in-chief of Crisis, the magazine of the NAACP.

— M Street was named for Rose Morgan, 1912-2008. Morgan began her career as a hair stylist at age 14 and by 1942 grew it into the world’s largest African American beauty parlor, Rose Meta House of Beauty in Harlem. She eschewed the idea that kinky hair and other traditionally black features were unattractive and created beauty techniques that let people look their best.

— N Street was named for the Nicholas brothers: Fayard Nicholas, 1914–2006, and Harold Nicholas, 1921–2000. By the time Harold was 11 and Fayard was 18, they were the featured act at the Cotton Club in Harlem. Their careers included stage, film and television performances. Over the years, they performed for King George VI, nine U.S. presidents and taught at Harvard University and Radcliffe College.

Contact East Valley View reporter F. Andrew Taylor at ataylor@viewnews.com or 702-380-4532.