An Acute Need Exists, But Is There Any Interest?

An Acute Need Exists, But Is There Any Interest?

BY LOUIE OVERSTREET

It’s no secret that you can weigh the effectiveness of black alphabet organizations in Vegas with a postage meter.

We have aided and abetted in our community becoming a laughingstock to other ethnic and racial groups in Vegas. I fear that nothing can be done to improve the performance of our regrettable state of impotence, include a 100 milligram purple pill.

There have been three periods of time, since the early 1930s, when we were confronted with social, political, and/or economic destinies: the segregated decades, 1930-1940s; beginning of the integration decades, 1960s-1970s; and during fully integrated times, 1990-2000s.

In the early 1930s, when legalized gambling returned to Nevada, Blacks were forced out of property they owned in downtown Las Vegas and herded into a totally segregated community west of the railroad tracks. We were forced to stay there for the next 35 years.

With the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, we — not without incident — could move to other areas of Vegas. Threatened boycotts resulted in the integration of stay hotels on the “Strip” and a federal mandate to attend integrated schools.

While moving freely in a fully integrated society, since the late 1990s, we somehow managed to totally drop the economic ball. I can, but will not, name the three men/three women (let’s call them the Sick Six) who were directly responsible for Blacks not getting a piece of the economic action for most of the last two decades.

Now there exists an acute need to promote a consociation forum where intellectual thought can be concentrated to generate public policy statements capable of impacting local, county, and state governments. Since our alphabet organizations can’t organize a squat contest, involving them would be a waste of time.

However, I know there are old-timers and recent arrivals who possess problem- solving abilities and would be willing to contribute ideas — if they were assured of not being called names by the Sick Six. If you have any interest, please call me at (702) 277-4674.