This Black History Month, Channel 13 is honoring a woman who has long championed the rights of low-income families in Nevada. From leading marches on the Las Vegas Strip, to starting an innovative nonprofit in the Historic Westside, Ruby Duncan is a changemaker whose legacy has left a lasting impact.

Today, I opened a copy of the Las Vegas Sentinel dated January 14, 1982. This was the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. issue, and on the front page was a Stevie Wonder quote, “I and a growing number of people believe that it is time for our country to adopt legislation that will make January 15, Martin Luther King’s birthday, a national holiday, both in recognition of what he achieved and as a reminder of the distance which still has to be traveled.”

In Las Vegas, activists and community leaders helped preserve landmarks to both the discrimination against African Americans and the growth in their numbers and their migration to Las Vegas’ Historic Westside.

What are the current plans for businesses in the Westside Business core? During the years from the early 1940s through the 1970s, businesses on the Westside were vibrant and successful. There were restaurants, nightclubs with gaming, a bowling alley, taxicab company, malt shop, beauty shops, and barbershops.

A pair of top executive branch officials left Nevada earlier this week, potentially leaving no formal acting governor as required by state law.

Claytee White, historian and director of UNLV’s Oral History Research Center, mentioned the Historic Westside’s resiliency and long-lasting legacy.

For more than 200 years, American industries, even universities, used slaves. Over that time, some 300,000 slaves who could be bought, sold, deeded and gifted, were forced into labor. And it wasn’t that long ago, ending in the late 1800s.

Let’s get something straight: Nevada may be the Mississippi of the West, but so are Arizona, Oregon, Washington, New Mexico, Colorado, and any state in any part of the country. Illinois is the Mississippi of the Midwest and so are all of the other Midwestern states. New York is the Mississippi of the Northeast and so are the other 12 northeastern states.