In 1971, a group of mothers led a march down the Las Vegas Strip and into Caesars Palace, shutting down gambling in the famed casino and taking on the biggest industry in Nevada.

The women relied on public assistance to feed their children. But the state, known for its libertarian politics and reliant on the labor of hospitality workers, was stingy with benefits and illegally kicked some mothers off the rolls amid a wave of panic over so-called “welfare queens.” In organizing other mothers to shut down the icon of American excess that is the Vegas Strip, Ruby Duncan and her allies—most of them Black women—not only put a spotlight on poverty, they challenged how Americans view people experiencing poverty.

The women featured in the new documentary Storming Caesars Palace weren’t asking for handouts. They were demanding Americans recognize the work that mothers perform by raising children as work that deserves respect as well as pay. Director Hazel Gurland-Pooler and producer Nazenet Habtezghi use recent interviews and spectacular archival footage, letting audiences hear from Duncan in her own words and transporting viewers to the frontlines of a movement that took on racism, the mob and a rising tide of Reaganism.

In real life, politics—and the slow work of organizing in particular—doesn’t always make for exciting movies, but the documentary brings to life an underappreciated piece of American history. And the voices featured in it resonate as America still grapples with income inequality and amid renewed interest in a universal basic income, an idea Duncan and her allies were fighting for 50 years ago.

8

+A fascinating, underappreciated piece of history

-Film gets a little too stuck in the past despite its enduring relevance and living protagonist

Storming Caesars Palace

Directed by Hazel Gurland-Pooler

New Mexico PBS, March 20, 9 pm