Storming Caesars Palace

Even some of my most historically aware students are often stunned to learn that the largest poor people’s organization of the 1960s and 1970s was the National Welfare Rights Organization. This is the story of the Black mothers who built one of NWRO’s most dynamic and creative local chapters. Through its dramatic, inspiring characters, this book made it plain to me just how much gender justice is indivisible from racial and economic justice. They staged massive protests in the Las Vegas strip with an amazing cast of allies. Then they moved on, and leveraged resources from far and wide to… show more.

Gripping and beautifully written, Storming Caesars Palace tells the story of Ruby Duncan and other Black welfare mothers in mid-twentieth-century Las Vegas. These women’s strategic and wide-ranging political activism challenged corrosive myths about welfare recipients in general, and Black women in particular, while wresting resources for school lunches, a health clinic, housing, job placement, and more from one of the most conservative states in the nation. By focusing on the lived experiences of Duncan and her fellow activists, Orleck illuminates how broad social changes like the mechanization of agriculture, the migration of Black Americans to cities, harsh living and… show more.