One address, three clubs
Specialist chronology dates Club Ebony's opening to January 15, 1948, and places its operation in 1948-49. The earlier sequence was Green Lantern in 1945-47 and Round-Up in 1947-48. These names describe connected use of an address, not necessarily one corporation passing smoothly through rebrands.
The corridor served Black residents, wartime workers and entertainers excluded from many other Las Vegas establishments. A small gaming room could participate in a much larger neighborhood economy of food, music, lodging and social contact.
When players banked the games
The surviving specialist account lists slots, blackjack, craps and poker. An interview preserved through collector research describes blackjack and craps as round-table games: players supplied the bank and the house took a portion. This suggests an operating custom different from assuming every game was bankrolled by a large casino company.
That description is retrospective, and no complete contemporary license or floor record is available. It cannot establish table numbers, limits or how consistently the arrangement was used. It does, however, offer a concrete way to understand the smaller-scale gambling economy.
Sarann Knight Preddy's work at the Ebony
Sarann Knight Preddy remembered working keno at Club Ebony. Her testimony adds an employee's view that is missing from the usual property-name chronology. Keno does not appear in the specialist game list, so it is best retained as her recollection rather than silently added to a verified license inventory.
Her broader account also recalls Black women working as twenty-one dealers and keno writers in 1940s Las Vegas. Those remembered totals concern the wider city, not Club Ebony's staff. They show that the history of these clubs includes women's skilled gaming labor, not only owners and entertainers.
The Ensley connection
Clarence Ray recalled holding a financial interest in the Ebony with Boysie Ensley. A later newspaper profile identifies Boysie within the family of Jake and Aunt Donnie Ensley, connecting the club to an established Black Las Vegas family.
An oral-history account of an interest is not the same as a surviving legal share register. The evidence supports a meaningful Ray-Ensley business connection while leaving the exact licensee and ownership proportions uncertain. Preserving that distinction avoids turning a remembered partnership into a false corporate history.
A small club in a larger history
No reliable Club Ebony menu, named musical booking, floor photograph or complete financial record has been identified in the assembled material. Famous entertainers used the Westside, but that fact cannot be converted into a list of confirmed Club Ebony performances.
The club remains worth remembering despite these limits. It provides a specific address, a short operating window, a distinctive description of player-backed games and the testimony of people who worked or invested there. Together they show how the Westside created opportunities within a segregated city, and why its history should not begin and end with the better-known Moulin Rouge.
The story in time
- 1945-47
Green Lantern occupies 501 Jackson.
- 1947-48
Round-Up Casino succeeds it.
- January 15, 1948
Specialist chronology dates Club Ebony's opening.
- 1948-49
Club Ebony's reported operating period.
Sources & further reading
The numbered links in each chapter point to the supporting material below. The wider bibliography also includes archival collections and specialist references. Historical uncertainty is explained where it affects the story; a source link does not grant permission to reproduce its images.
Start with these sources
Claytee D. White, “Jackson Avenue Nightclubs in the 1940s,” Las Vegas Black ImageWestside location chronology, Casino Collectibles AssociationSarann Knight-Preddy interview, Nevada Historical Society QuarterlyClarence Ray oral history, UNLV- Research sourceClaytee D. White, “Jackson Avenue Nightclubs in the 1940s,” Las Vegas Black Image
- Research sourceWestside location chronology, Casino Collectibles Association
- Research sourceSarann Knight-Preddy interview, Nevada Historical Society Quarterly
- Research sourceJ. David Hoggard oral history, UNLV
- Research sourceClarence Ray oral history, UNLV
- Research source“Aunt Donnie” Ensley profile, Las Vegas Sun, February 12, 1965, UNLV
- Research sourceHistoric Jackson Avenue context
- Research sourceLas Vegas African American Museum historic Jackson Avenue materials
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