Uppity Wisconsin

To the Madison City Council:

White supremacy is alive and well in Madison, Wisconsin, but you just don't get it.

    Remember when those rich guys from the auto plants flew to Washington in private jets with their hands out for public money. It was too late but they promised to come to the next meeting in gas upped Pintos and collapsible Corvairs.  But the public kept saying they just don't get it. Then there were rumors of luxurious private parties and lavish Vegas gambling jaunts. Once again, the public said, they just don't get it.
    Well, it looks like you sitting there in your, made in china chairs, and  just don't get it. When you drive around town, who do you see working. When you drive past a street?  did you notice not one black man is on that crew? When you walk though a road construction site paid for with tax incremental financing of federal dollars, who do you see working? You do not see a black man working.  When you see a building construction paid for by federal tax dollars  at one of ten sites on campus, who do you see working? When you see a private company using tax dollars to buy land and build buildings, you don't see a black man working on the project or in the building working after its completed.

Moulin Rouge. The mention of that name, in the right circles, brings back a flood of associations. Among them: a famous cabaret in Gay Paree, a Nicole Kidman movie rich in costume and set design and…well, a movie, anyway; or, if you really know your films, perhaps the association is with the 1952 John Huston “biography” film of the same name. The one association that might not quickly come to mind, even though it should: ground zero in a battle that led to the desegregation of Las Vegas. Today’s story will fill in the blanks that you might have regarding that association—and by the time we’re done, we’ll have covered, just as we promised last time, the 55-year history of a place that began in 1955, lasted for not quite six months, and ended just last week…maybe. It’s another one of those American history stories you never heard before, and it’s well worth the telling…so let’s get right to it.

“Last year people won more than one billion dollars playing poker.

There may be no more recognizable icon of “Retro-Cool” than that photograph of the Rat Pack standing in front of the marquee at The Sands Hotel in Las Vegas. They’re right there, lined up in front of their own giant names on the marquee: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop. Night after night they would gather with friends such as Shirley MacLaine, Angie Dickinson, and Johnny Carson, to deliver some of the greatest nightclub performances in entertainment history. Today’s story, however, focuses on what happened after the show: when four of those five could leave the showroom, drink at the bar, gamble at the casino, and go upstairs to their rooms. In a town sometimes known as the “Mississippi of the West”, however, one of those five performers could not do any of those things. Our Journey In Two Parts literally crosses over to the “wrong side of the tracks”, tells a story of segregation overcome, and recounts the six-month history of a Las Vegas hotel that has a 55-year history: the Moulin Rouge.

“...We boast of the freedom enjoyed by our people above all other peoples.

We have a story today that is a big-time reminder of how things have changed in America...and it’s all inspired by a book of jokes. I am often prowling thrift shops looking for interesting things, and I came across a 1946 copy of “10,000 Jokes, Toasts, And Stories” (edited by Lewis and Faye Copeland), which contains a section of jokes entitled “Races and Nations”...which contains a subsection entitled “Negro”. We are going to examine some of those jokes...and the world in which those jokes resided. I warn you now: it will be highly unpleasant; but as we come out the other side the goal will be to show that what was not only acceptable, but commonplace, not so very long ago, would be considered wildly unacceptable today—and that we are a better people for the change.