Joe Neal, Nevada’s ‘champion of the little guy’
Nevada lost a towering figure last week with the passing of Joe Neal. Mr. Neal, Nevada’s first Black state senator, died Thursday at the age of 85 after a long illness. When he retired from the Legislature in 2004, he had represented District 4 — which includes parts of Las Vegas and North Las Vegas north of downtown — for 32 years, at the time the longest tenure in state history. He was also the Democratic candidate for governor in 2002, losing to incumbent Kenny Guinn.
Born in Louisiana in 1935, Mr. Neal moved west to Nevada in 1954 after high school. He joined the Air Force and eventually earned his college degree in 1963 at Southern University in Louisiana before returning to Las Vegas. In Southern Nevada, he worked as an equal opportunity compliance officer for Reynolds Electrical & Engineering and was a pivotal figure in the local civil rights movement. In 1972, he won election to Carson City.
“It was to get out there and stir the pot,” Mr. Neal recalled in a
2012 interview with KNPR, “and let people know that people like myself … had an absolute right to get out there and run if they felt they wanted to be elected to something. I knew I had some issues, and I wanted to create a situation where Blacks would be able to get elected to the state Legislature on their own terms.”
And stir the pot he did. Mr. Neal was a man of principle who was unafraid to stand up and speak his mind even if it might upset the political establishment. He ruffled feathers in both parties — he was a proponent of higher gaming taxes and opposed the expansion of casinos into residential areas — and fought with tenacity for the underprivileged, senior citizens, minorities and others who often struggled to have their voices heard. He was a vocal proponent of criminal justice reform decades before the issue dominated the front pages in 2020.
He lost many of his political battles, but Mr. Neal was never content to sit on the sidelines, and his efforts brought attention to many issues that might otherwise have gone unnoticed. “He was always a champion of the little guy,” said Rep. Dina Titus, who served with Mr. Neal in Carson City for 13 years. “He was willing to fight against any odds for what he believed was right.”
And that’s a mighty impressive way for anyone to be remembered.
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