Woodrow Wilson (1971) - Nevada State Archives Photo # LEG-0329

February is Black History Month and coincides with the beginning of the 83rd Nevada Legislative Session. This month celebrates the achievements and legacy of African Americans, remembers their struggles to gain full citizenship, and honors their contributions to medicine, industry, politics, culture, and science. The Nevada State Archives has a large collection of legislative records, including photographs and documents of prominent African American politicians in Nevada.

Pictured above is Woodrow Wilson (1915-1999), the first black legislator elected to the Nevada Assembly. Mr. Wilson was a Republican from Clark County and he served from 1966-1972. He worked hard to end segregation, was instrumental in pushing through the Nevada Fair Housing Law, and served as the chairman of the Nevada State Advisory Committee for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. You can find a biography for him on the Nevada Legislature's website here.

Pictured below (left) is Joe Neal (1935-2020), a Democrat from Clark County and the first African American elected to the Nevada Senate. He served from November 1972 until his retirement in November of 2004. With 32 years, Senator Neal holds the 2nd longest service in the history of the Nevada Senate. During his legislative service, Senator Neal fought for social justice, the African-American community in Nevada, and healthcare. Read more about him in his biography available here at the State Library.

Also pictured below (right) is Bernice Martin-Matthews (1933-), a Democrat from Washoe County and the first African American woman elected to the Nevada Senate. She served in the Senate from 1994 until she retired in 2010. During her 18 years of service, she advocated for education and women's rights and was the Assistant Minority Leader in 2007. She was also a member of the Governor's Commission on Nursing and Nursing Education, and a former City Councilwoman, City of Reno.

Joe Neal (n.d.) Nevada State Archives Photo # LEG-0403	Bernice Martin-Matthews (n.d.) Nevada State Archives Photo # LEG-0401

The Nevada State Archives has a large, but incomplete photograph collection of previous Nevada Legislators. If you would like to donate photographs that add to the history of the Nevada state government, please contact the Archives via our Ask an Archivist form here: https://nsla-nv.libwizard.com/f/archivist. 

“Home” Means Nevada was adopted as the Nevada State Song by the Nevada Legislature on February 6, 1933.  The composer, Bertha Eaton Raffetto (1885-1952), was a native of Bloomfield, Iowa, but came to love Nevada as her ‘own’ and her true home.  According to her daughter, Frances McDonald, “In view of all the places my mother both visited and lived in for varying lengths of time, I have no doubt mother felt and meant it when she said, ‘Home Means Nevada’”.

Mrs. Raffetto was a student of literature and a gifted poet, fiction writer, singer, and composer. She participated in multiple civic groups in the Reno area as well as being active in politics. Raffetto was elected national historian by the National League of American Pen Women in April of 1951, winning national recognition for herself and Nevada, achieving a cherished goal in the field of writing. (Nevada State Journal 1952)

The Nevada State Library is fortunate to have in its’ collections Mrs. Raffetto’s notes about how the State Song came to be. The notes provide an entertaining account of the creative planning process and the reality of one’s competing social calendar and obligations.  “…I had scarcely assembled my old notes, when unexpected…and very welcome…house guests arrived.”  She recounts, “Two weeks of fun passed by, and on the morning my guests were leaving, I read with consternation…that the Native Daughter’s picnic was to be celebrated the next day—and not one note of that song I had promised to sing, had been written!” 

To read Mrs. Raffetto’s notes in full, you can access the stored digital copy through our library’s online catalog.

As we celebrate this year’s Nevada Day with the theme “Home Means Nevada” may we appreciate the woman who penned this phrase and provided us with our cherished State Song.