Six women honored in North Las Vegas for work on behalf of poor

Ruby Duncan and five other women who fought for Southern Nevada welfare recipients’ rights in the 1970s were celebrated as pioneers at the North Las Vegas school that bears her name.

“They paved the way for other organizations and activists,” said Vance “Stretch” Sanders, founder and president of All Shades United, a racial solidarity group.

About 120 guests each paid a $5 entry fee that will be donated to the Operation Life Scholarship Fund which will contribute to education: school supplies and books for students in needy areas of the community. Aside from Duncan, the event honored Alversa Beals, Rosie Seals, Emma Stampley, Essie Henderson and the late Mary Wesley — all of whom formed the Clark County Welfare Rights Organization, a chapter of the National Welfare Rights Organization. Their goal was reinstating welfare benefits to all women with children after the state cut them.

“Whatever we did covered the state of Nevada,” said Duncan, 84, the group’s former president.

All Shades United held “An Evening with Ruby Duncan” in the cafeteria of Ruby Duncan Elementary School on Feb. 3. Each of the honorees was presented with an All Shades United Las Vegas Legend Award for outstanding community service and a proclamation signed by Clark County Commissioner Lawrence Weekly, who declared Feb. 3 Operation Life Day.

“This is overdue. It’s also important to black history,” Sanders said. Five young women sang “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” often referred to as the black American national anthem. The crowd offered a standing ovation.

Guests included some of the honorees and their relatives and friends.

Beals, 83, said it felt good to be recognized.

“I’m very happy,” Stampley added.

A few of Wesley’s children accepted the awards on her behalf.

“(Growing up) we were the richest poor black people in the world,” Sandra Smith said as she remembered her mother.

Guest speaker Claytee White, director of the Oral History Research Center at UNLV, said public assistance is incorrectly seen as “a handout to the poor and a subsidy to the rich.”

The women carried out their first protest march March 6, 1971, demanding better welfare benefits and adequate expansion. Duncan said at the time, all the they were receiving was sugar, flour and cornmeal. The march involved about 1,500 people, starting at the Circus Circus and ending at Caesars Palace.

Marchers chanted “Give us back our checks” and “We Shall Overcome.”

Leading the march were Duncan; entertainers Jane Fonda and Sammy Davis Jr.; and the Rev. Ralph Abernathy of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

Duncan, Wesley, Beals, Stampley, Seals and Henderson formed Operation Life in May 1972. They secured a variety of programs and resources for the poor, including a library in historic West Las Vegas, a food pantry, a day care center, a clinic and the Women, Infants & Children food-and-assistance program.

One major accomplishment was bringing food-stamp assistance to Nevada in April 1978. Nevada was one of the few last states to receive them. Duncan said she lobbied every legislative meeting in Carson City.

Born and raised in Tallulah, Louisiana, Duncan moved to Las Vegas in 1952 and worked for many years as a maid at the Stardust and Flamingo. Leading the movement was challenging but fun, she said.

“Whenever we got something done or passed in our favor, that was overly fun,” she said. “My mission was to do everything I could do for poor women and children and low-income working families.”

Contact Raven Jackson at rjackson@viewnews.com or 702-383-0283. Follow @ravenmjackson on Twitter.