January 17, 2022
Although Louisiana schools desegregated right before Charles Lee Bilberry’s senior year in 1969, he was not allowed to attend his graduation ceremony, he said, because “the white parents didn’t want their children to graduate with colored children.”
Bilberry collected his diploma from the principal’s office and soon moved to Southern Nevada. He recalled his mother’s hug and kiss on the cheek when she told him, “Son, when you go to Las Vegas, be the best that you can be.”
He spoke of the moment Sunday afternoon during an Interfaith Service at Second Baptist Church in the Historic Westside to commemorate the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
Source: Historic Westside interfaith service celebrates MLK holiday