Mr. John McCarroll is a longtime leader in the African American community in Charlotte, North Carolina. Born November 28, 1918 in Williamston, South Carolina he moved to Charlotte and the Brooklyn neighborhood in 1936 to become active in the funeral home business. Mr. McCarroll has worked at Grier Funeral Services since 1936 and is now currently the president and manager of the publicly owned business. Within this interview Mr. McCarroll discussed different businesses, schools, and churches that were located in the Brooklyn community and other black neighborhoods in Charlotte. The substandard housing that people in African American neighborhoods lived in before integration and Urban Renewal was also discussed. Finally, the overall impact of Urban Renewal on the entire black community was addressed.Read more…

Dr. Lem Long was born in Mint Hill in 1923 and has lived in the Charlotte area for most of his life. In 1937, he began working in the business that he would be apart for the remainder of his career, mortuary services. As such, his work brought him often to the old neighborhood of Brooklyn, where he would often conduct business in people’s homes. He was also a prominent member of the AME Zion Rockhill church and an Elk’s Club member. Dr. Long provides an interesting outsiders perspective on the process of urban renewal as well as perspectives on process of urban expansion and the relocation of people.Read more…

Ms. Frances Leach was born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. She lived briefly in Brooklyn but her family moved to the neighborhood of Cherry, where she lived until the 1970s. She attended Second Ward High School and belonged to the House of Prayer congregation. She became a member in 1935. In the interview, Ms. Leach speaks of the House of Prayer, giving her memories of church groups, the House of Prayer convocation exercises, and the feelings she had at the removal of the church from Brooklyn. She gives brief recollections of Blue Heaven, African American and white-owned businesses, and the differences between Cherry and Brooklyn.Read more…

Deacon Walter “Buck” Kennedy grew up in the Cherry neighborhood, but went to Second Ward School. Buck, as he liked to be called, joined Friendship in 1941 as a young boy. He was involved in the children’s choir and served as a Junior Deacon. He was also actively involved through the years in the Baptist Training Union (BTU) and can remember many of the Church leaders from Brooklyn and stories surrounding those individuals. Buck Kennedy was heavily involved in the music ministry and talked about the first radio broadcast from the Church over WGIV through the telephone lines. Mr. Kennedy was able to discuss the Boy Scouts and other functions for the youth of the Church.

Buck Kennedy also participated in a group interview with other members of Friendship Baptist Church.Read more…

Ms. Doretha Leak’s remembrance of the Brooklyn community was stronger than the tape recorder, which only captured about 30 minutes of her reflections. However, between my notes and her voice, we managed to reproduce the Brooklyn that was and is. Born in 1933, Ms. Leak remembered her childhood as a time when her family compensated for the appliances they lacked. Her youth was a youth of church, school, and work. She was baptized at Ebenezer Baptist Church (located in Brooklyn) at the age of eight, and remained a member there until she married in 1952. Then, she joined her husband at Friendship Baptist Church and remains there to this day. Ms. Leak reflected on Brooklyn’s churches, businesses, schools, and other organizations. She attended Second Ward High School, and went to the Queen City Classics in which Second Ward played its first football game each year against West Charlotte, the only other black high school in Charlotte at that time. Ms. Leak recalled that at one point, Brooklyn was home to 13 black churches. Grace AMEZ (African Methodist Episcopal Zion) Church is the only black Brooklyn church that remains where it was before urban renewal. Her current church, Friendship Baptist, moved from its Brooklyn location to Northwest School, then from Northwest School to its current location on Beatties Ford Road. The church she was baptized in, Ebenezer Baptist, had to move twice because it was burned down. At one point, Ebenezer held its services at Second Ward High School. Ms. Leak remembered some of the businesses that dotted Brooklyn, like shoe shops, grocery stores, restaurants, laundry services, ice houses, movie theaters, and funeral homes. During World War II, a USO house on McDowell Street catered to black soldiers. She recalled the laundry service that came to customers’ homes to pick up and return their laundry. Her family patronized an ice house because they had no refrigerator. To keep from having to empty the pan that contained the water that dripped from the ice box, she and her siblings bored a hole through the floor and let the water from the ice box run into the ground. Although a Baptist, Ms. Leak occasionally visited the House of Prayer’s services. She talked about the convocations the House holds every September, and praised the children of House of Prayer members for their obedience and devotion to their church. Ms. Leak, a retired elementary school teacher, said she had few problems out of children that attended House of Prayer services.Read more…