Alex Chapin

Mrs. Ozener Yancey grew up in the Cherry neighborhood of Charlotte and walked to church in Brooklyn. She joined Friendship Baptist at age 15. She recounts the trepidation she felt when she first visited the church but also the welcoming nature of the congregation. She attended Second Ward High School. She talks of Mr. Hemphill, a church leader, as well as the sister of her good friend Sarah Francis, both of whom died. She talked of their funerals and the ways in which the church came together to mourn. She misses the closeness of the old church in Brooklyn where she knew everyone and the congregation looked out for others.Read more…

Ms. Cleo A. Yongue is a historic figure in the black community who just turned 90 a few months ago. She was a nurse for the Charlotte Heath Department for 36 years. She has been a healthcare provider for several different generations in Charlotte. In the interview Ms. Yongue gave information concerning the reasons blacks would visit Brooklyn; how the community was affected by urban renewal; healthcare for blacks in Charlotte; and how blacks should learn a lesson from urban renewal in Brooklyn.Read more…

Diane Wyche was born in Charlotte in 1934 and was the daughter of Rudolph Melville Wyche, a medical doctor and surgeon who worked in the Brooklyn neighborhood before urban renewal. In this interview, Ms. Wyche recalls her father’s practice in Brooklyn, including the types of surgeries he would perform, how he was paid, and his house calls. Ms. Wyche also discusses her memories of Daddy Grace and the House of Prayer convocation parade.Read more…

Mr. James Yancey lived outside of Brooklyn but joined the Friendship Baptist Church in 1952. He began work as a juvenile probation officer in 1959 and interacted with many segments of the Brooklyn community. He gained employment as a social worker for the Greenville community in the late 1960s for urban renewal. He understood the process of urban renewal, referring to it as “black removal.” He did not want to be part of urban renewal’s relocation process because of the hardships it caused the community. He attended and graduated from Johnson C. Smith University.Read more…

Mr. Bill Veeder served as Charlotte City Manager during the 1960s, and worked closely with the Charlotte city council, Mr. Vernon Sawyer and the urban renewal committees, and Mayor Stanford Brookshire. Due to the fact that his testimony derives from the city of Charlotte’s point of view, Mr. Veeder describes Brooklyn and city politics from a unique and under-represented side of the Brooklyn urban renewal project story. After serving in the United States Army in the Pacific theatre during World War II, Mr. Veeder graduated from Colgate University with a degree in Political Science in 1946.Read more…