Busting Vegas Myths: Frank Sinatra Led the Way for Desegregation on the Strip
Editor's Note: "Busting Vegas Myths" is a weekly column that addresses misconceptions and rumors about the city's history. This piece initially ran on August 7th, 2023. Next week, it'll be 26 years since Frank Sinatra's passing.
Frank Sinatra was a pioneer in advancing equality in Las Vegas. However, he didn't single-handedly put an end to segregation on the Strip. It took concerted political efforts to achieve that goal.
In the mid-1950s, Sinatra insisted Sammy Davis Jr., a fellow Rat Pack member, be allowed to stay at the Sands if they were to perform together. This resulted in Davis being given his own suite.
Similarly, Sinatra noticed Nat King Cole, another friend, always dined alone in the Sands' dressing room instead of with other performers in the main dining room. After discovering the reason, Sinatra invited Cole to join him for dinner in the Garden Room, making Cole the first Black person to eat there.
Numerous books and articles have recounted these events. While questionable, Sinatra's contribution to civil rights should not be discounted. Few white celebrities of the time openly supported racial equality.
Sinatra organized a 1961 fundraiser for Martin Luther King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference in New York's Carnegie Hall. He also frequently denounced segregation during his concerts.
In an essay published in the July 1958 issue of Ebony magazine, Sinatra wrote, "As long as most white men think of a Negro first and a man second, we're in trouble. I don't know why we can't grow up."
The Inequality
Prior to 1960, people of color were not allowed to stay, gamble, or dine in any Las Vegas casino hotels. This included well-known Black headliners like Davis and Cole. They had to sneak in through back doors to perform and exit through those same doors after the shows.
Black tourists stayed at boarding houses in the Westside, a historic Black community five miles northwest of the Strip. The most famous was operated by Genevieve Harrison, whose Harrison House is now a National Register of Historic Places site.
Sinatra certainly advocated for change. But did he truly put an end to segregation?
Sinatra believed so.
"Everything changed," he reportedly said during a late-life interview, part of a bonus track on a 2006 box set. "I made demands to some people and said, 'If they all have to live on the other side of town, then you don't need me, you just don't need me.' And I think a few other entertainers caught on and started speaking up, too.
"I guess I was the loudest mouth in town."
Sinatra was unaware of how little he was truly in charge. Casino managers of that time saw him as an asset who could command their attention and make demands. These requests were often granted when Sinatra was present.
However, as soon as he left, the old policies would likely resurface.
At the time, Las Vegas catered to many wealthy racists from the Jim Crow South, earning it the nickname "The Mississippi of the West" by Sarann Knight-Preddy, who in 1950 became Nevada's first casino owner of color (not in Las Vegas but in rural Hawthorne, Nevada).
Although casino owners may not have shared the same bigoted mindset as their customers, they feared losing business by risking upsetting them.
The Reality of Integration
On March 26th, 1960, casino owners and local leaders met with James B. McMillan, president of the NAACP's Las Vegas chapter, in the coffee shop of the closed Moulin Rouge casino hotel to negotiate an end to segregation on the Strip. McMillan chose this location as the Moulin Rouge was Nevada's first desegregated casino hotel, opening in 1955. It allowed Black patrons to gamble and work front-of-house roles.
This significant meeting, known as the Moulin Rouge Agreement, led casino representatives to consent to allowing African-Americans to use their establishments and occupy public-facing positions. This breakthrough paved the way for further anti-discrimination laws in real estate and employment.
So what persuaded the casinos to acquiesce?
Fear. The Moulin Rouge Agreement was struck the day before a mass civil rights march McMillan had scheduled on the Strip to protest segregation. This would've been disastrous for the casino business.
"The African-American community fought hard for, and achieved, the fundamental human right to access public facilities, while an artist merely managed to secure lodging for a friend briefly, explained Claytee White, Director of the Oral Research Center at UNLV, in an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal back in 2015."
Don't forget to check out “Vegas Myths Busted” every Monday in Visit for previous myths uncovered. Do you have a Vegas myth you'd like us to investigate? Contact us at [email protected].
Read also:
- Columbia University Faces Possible Expulsion Following Demonstrations
- Football turmoil in Munich: Last-minute penalty stuns Bayern
- Steinmeier Faces Backlash Over "Expert Caliber" Remark
- US State Department Lacks Own Standards in Regard to Israel
Source: www.casino.org
