Blogger and Las Vegas freelancer Steve Friess says Harry Reid is exaggerating — at best — when he says in a Black History month statement on his website that he “worked hard” to end segregation in Las Vegas and on the Strip. Friess, by contrast, penned a piece for AOL news in which he says some civil rights pioneers don’t remember Reid making contributions to that fight, which isn’t referenced in Reid’s own biography. (Full disclosure: Friess quotes me in his piece, and then later on his blog, about the controversy.)
But Reid’s office is fighting back, collecting two statements from Las Vegas civil rights pioneers who say that Reid did contribute to the fight against segregation in a state known then as the Mississippi of the West. Here’s what Ruby Duncan had to say:
“Senator Reid has a long history of fighting for the African-American community in Nevada. This includes his efforts to integrate casino employees on the Las Vegas Strip, along with countless other times that he stood side by side with us, especially when other’s wouldn’t. There’s a reason that I and others have always stood by Senator Reid, and it’s because he’s always stood by us. I am incredibly disappointed that after taking the time to speak with Steve Freiss that he chose not to include any of my responses.”
And fellow pioneer Bob Bailey added this:
“Senator Reid, as a young lawyer and as [lieutenant] governor, was part of the movement and the process to integrate Las Vegas. He was not afraid to be on the frontlines when it mattered. There were very few non-black attorneys in those days willing to step up and represent the interests of black Americans. Among the many examples of Harry standing with us is when he took Larry Bolden on as a client. Larry Bolden was a black police officer who was accused of cheating on the captain’s exam and forced to drop his name from the list of eligible candidates for promotion. Reid and Bolden were former classmates at Basic High School and Harry took on Bolden’s case with vigor. They challenged the accusation and Reid presented his case to the Nevada State Supreme Court where he eventually won and Bolden was completely exonerated. Harry successfully represented Larry and as a consequence, Larry became Las Vegas’s first African-American deputy chief. It is because of this and his long record of work on behalf of expanding civil rights that I am proud to stand by Senator Reid.”
Clearly, Reid and his staff don’t want a repeat of the storm of controversy that erupted after he was quoted saying privately that President Barack Obama was “light-skinned” and didn’t have a “Negro dialect,” and as a result he’d do well in a presidential contest. Duncan — along with two co-authors — also came to Reid’s defense in that incident, with an op-ed in the Las Vegas Sun declaring their support.
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