Karen Flint

Mr. Wright Hunter lived in Brooklyn until the age of nine years old, but continued to attend the schools in the Brooklyn neighborhood. Mr. Hunter discussed many fond memories of the different areas around Brooklyn, such as the Cherry neighborhood and Third Ward. Most interesting is a story he tells about a tragedy in the Brooklyn neighborhood involving the drowning of several children. Mr. Hunter also talks extensively about losing his home to Urban Renewal and the settlement after the Federal Government became involved. Mr. Hunter participated in a group interview with other alumni of Second Ward.

Mr. Wright Hunter is included of the Second Ward Alumni Interview.

Ms. Ida James was born and raised in the Brooklyn community of Charlotte. She attended both Myers Street Elementary and Second Ward High Schools. She attended Friendship Missionary Baptist Church from an early age and became a member with her family at age eleven. Ms. James was a member of the Usher Board of the church where she was in close contact with Reverend Kerry. She maintained close friendships with this group. She feels the church’s move from Brooklyn allowed her to be appreciative of the things she has, and she tried to instill this in her children so that they would not overlook their many blessings. Ms. James participated in a group interview with other members of Friendship Baptist Church.Read more…

Mr. William Harris born in 1936, grew up in the Brooklyn community and has strong, fond memories of the area that was once his home. He attended Brooklyn Presbyterian Church, Myers Street Elementary School, and Second Ward High School. Dr. Harris was a teacher and a principal at schools that were located in Brooklyn, including Myers Street, Biddleville, and Bruns Avenue. Dr. Harris was effusive in his praise for the Brooklyn community he grew up in, the church he worshipped at (as well all the Brooklyn churches), and the schools he learned life-sustaining lessons at. He said that neighbors acted as if they were members of an extended family, nurturing and disciplining children as needed. He said that his teachers instilled in him the importance of planning ahead, the necessity of punctuality, and a respect for work performed with the hands. He passed those and other lessons onto his students and to their parents. Dr. Harris is critical of the urban renewal project that destroyed his neighborhood. Because his boyhood homes, church, and schools are gone, he considers himself “the kid that never was”. He castigated Charlotte’s political leaders that approved of the renewal project, sarcastically referring to them as “so-called city fathers” whose errors included selling the Brooklyn community “a bill of goods” while removing them from their homes and institutions in the name of progress. Dr. Harris said that there are different meanings of the concept “progress”. Despite the removal, Dr. Harris praised former residents for their resilience in moving on with their lives and for keeping the memory of Brooklyn alive. He participated in this interview because he wanted to show that although physical things can be removed, one’s spirit cannot be disrupted.Read more…

Ms. Rosena Gaines is one of fourteen children and was born on March 8, 1918 to Willie and Marthena Haygood. Ms. Gaines married William H. Gaines, Jr. and has no children of her own. Mr. Gaines is no longer living. She attended Myers Street Elementary School and Second Ward High School. Upon graduating from Second Ward, Ms. Gaines attended Livingstone College and did her graduate work at Columbia University Teachers College. Ms. Gaines was a student, English teacher, and counselor at Second Ward High School. She is able to give two perspectives of attending Second Ward as a student and working at Second Ward as a faculty member. She has a great love of the school and the close-knit Brooklyn community. Ms. Gaines speaks of urban renewal and states that the community was very sad to see Brooklyn go but the community was not adverse to progress. Ms. Gaines’s interview provides good insight into life as a Second Ward student and teacher.Read more…

Ms. Vermelle Diamond Ely grew up in Brooklyn on Stonewall Street, a more affluent section of the Brooklyn neighborhood. Mrs. Ely attended Second Ward High School and eventually became an educator herself in the same school system. She speaks extensively of her fond memories of friends, games and the school and its teachers. Mrs. Ely is very vocal on the subject of Urban Renewal and has suggestions on how politicians could learn from the Brooklyn neighborhood’s removal. She is also one of the authors of Charlotte, North Carolina of the Black American Series as well as founder of the Second Ward High School Alumni Foundation. She participated in a group interview with other alumni of Second Ward.

Ms. Vermelle Diamond Ely is included of the Second Ward Alumni Interview.