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. Charles Jones was born in Chester, South Carolina in 1937. His family moved to the Biddleville neighborhood of Charlotte when he was young and he has remained in the area since. He received his Bachelors from Johnson C. Smith University in 1958 and his law degree from Howard University in 1966. During the sixties, Mr. Jones was involved with the NAACP, helping to orchestrate various sit ins at Charlotte lunch counters. He now practices law, an occupation he has held for thirty years. Mr. Jones recalls various times he spent as a young man in Brooklyn, visiting such places as the Lincoln Theatre and Second Ward High School. He also has many fond memories of various individuals and groups who lived in and around the old neighborhood.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. 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.

Mrs. Thereasea Elder was born and raised in the Greenville section of Charlotte. While not a Brooklyn native herself she visited Brooklyn and interacted with its inhabitants. She has been active in the Mecklenburg County Black Heritage Committee and has received the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Award. Her history and activities allowed her to speak knowledgably about Urban Renewal activities both in Brooklyn and Greenville. She spoke regarding familial activities, churches, economic activities and race relations in Charlotte. Mrs. Elder also spoke of the African-American experience post Urban Renewal.Read more…