Interviews

Second Ward High School was opened in 1923 in Charlotte, North Carolina as the city’s first high school for African American children.  The following people are included in this interview:

• Price F. Davis
• Calvin C. Davis
• Naomi A. Davis
• Vermelle Diamond Ely
• Wright Hunter

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• Sister Mary McGill
• Deacon Walter “Buck” Kennedy
• Sister Dorothy Shipman

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Dolores Giles and Mary Poe were interviewed at the same time.

• Dolores Giles
• Mary Poe

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Mr. Olaf Abraham was born at Good Samaritan Hospital on February 16, 1939. He grew up in a shotgun house located at 1100 East Hill Street. Mr. Abraham attended Myers Street Elementary, Morgan Middle School in the Cherry neighborhood, and Second Ward High School. In the early 1950s, Mr. Abraham and his family moved out of Brooklyn to the Southside community. He continued to return to Brooklyn to finish school at Second Ward High and graduated in 1957. Mr. Abraham worked at Queen City Pharmacy on Second Street, at Wilson and Holmes Pharmacy on Brevard Street, and delivered the Charlotte Observer during his school years. After graduating high school, Mr. Abraham joined the military. He heard about urban renewal and that the Brooklyn neighborhood was being torn down from friends and family. He remembers that love and respect for one another tied the Brooklyn community together at Pearl Street Park and attending Second Ward High School.Read more…

Mr. Kelly Alexander Jr. was born on October 17, 1948 to Kelly Alexander Sr. and Margaret Alexander. He grew up in Brooklyn and attended Myers Street School, Second Ward High School, and Friendship Missionary Baptist Church. He lived with his family on Stonewall Street until they were forced to relocate during urban renewal. They moved to the University Park area in 1962. He and his mother live in that house to this day. His family owns Alexander Funeral Home, which was once located on Brevard Street in Brooklyn.

Mr. Alexander provides an interesting interview in regards to urban renewal because he not only experienced it, but also studied it academically. He explains why he believes Brooklyn was considered a “blighted” area and became a recipient of the urban renewal program and what he feels were some of the problems with the program. Read more…

Margaret Alexander was born on September 20, 1924. She attended Alexander Street School and graduated from Second Ward High School in 1942. She continued her education at the North Carolina College for Negroes, which is now North Carolina Central University in Durham, and graduated in 1946. She lived in first ward with her family and moved to Brooklyn in 1947 after she married Kelly Alexander Sr. She lived in Brooklyn and raised her two sons, Kelly Jr. and Alfred, there until 1962 when they were forced to move because of urban renewal. The family moved into a home in the University Park area, which Mrs. Alexander and her eldest son, Kelly Jr., still live in today. The whole family was very active in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Their involvement in the organization may have been the reason their home was bombed in 1965. Mrs. Alexander’s interview is very personal in the sense that the listener will hear the story of a Brooklyn family. She offers information on clubs and organizations in Brooklyn and Brooklyn community itself.Read more…

James Black was born in Brooklyn in 1942 and was a resident of the community until 1952, although he has extended family that stayed in Brooklyn through the urban renewal period. His life reflects the importance of the Brooklyn community structure, especially the guidance given to the members of the United House of Prayer for All People. In this interview, Mr. Black expresses his admiration for the role that the House of Prayer had in the community and remembers aspects of the daily operations of the church, such as businesses that operated out of the church and details of the services. In addition, Mr. Black remembers fondly the high expectations that were set for him by his parents and family, and recalls the role of the community in rearing a child. The neighborhood garden in which Mr. Black worked as a child is one manifestation of this community spirit. Mr. Black has certainly exceeded the expectations of his family and neighbors, first as a groundbreaking African-American professional golfer and currently as the founder of a non-profit organization that uses the game of golf to teach valuable life skills to at-risk children. Read more…

Christine Bowser was born in South Carolina in Winsboro 1934. Ms. Bowser moved to Charlotte at a young age and settled down in the First Ward neighborhood. She attended Second Ward High School and was a member of several organizations there, such as the band and Y-youth. She later graduated from North Carolina Central with a B.A. in Physical Education. She returned to Charlotte in 1960 and became the Program Director for the Phyllis Wheatley YWCA in the neighborhood of Brooklyn. In 1964 the YWCA was closed and she began to work for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School System as a Physical Education teacher.Read more…

Calvin Brown Upon graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Mr. Calvin L. Brown moved to the city of Charlotte in 1961 to pursue his desire to practice law. At this time, only four lawyers professionally practiced law in Charlotte and Mr. Brown added to that number increasing the count to five. He entered Charlotte during a time of great change as issues of segregation and integration were constantly being challenged and urban renewal promised to tear out the heart of a once thriving black community and ethnic enclave known as Brooklyn. During the urban renewal process, Mr. Brown aided the residents of the Brooklyn community by acting as a liaison between black property owners and the city to negotiate fair and just compensation. Mr. Brown continues to practice law today at the African Methodist Episcopal Zion (A.M.E. Zion) Publishing House that now resides on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, once known as Second Street and the heart of the Brooklyn community.Read more…

Mr. Don Bryant was elected to the Charlotte City Council in 1961, in which capacity he served until 1965. During his first term on city council, Bryant held the only opposing vote to the Urban Redevelopment Plan in Charlotte’s Brooklyn neighborhood. He agreed with the other city council members on the issue of destitution and poverty in the Brooklyn neighborhood and the importance of urban redevelopment, but disagreed with the council’s ideas and methods in achieving the desired goals and objectives. He sums up the interview with a statement that the urban redevelopment plan was a step in the right direction for Charlotte during the 1960s, but was not a perfect plan. Bryant was born on April 10, 1923, in Greenville, South Carolina, the son of James R. Bryant and Lillian C. Bryant. He is the husband of Frances V. Bryant, and the father of Melissa Bryant and Cameron Icard. He entered Davidson College in 1942, but left during his sophomore year to serve the United States in World War II as a B-17 pilot. Returning in 1946, Bryant resumed his courses at Davidson and graduated in 1948 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration. Since 1948 he has made his career in the funeral home business, Harry and Bryant Company.Read more…

Mr. Charles Clyburn’s memories of Brooklyn span almost thirty years, having been born in Charlotte and living there his entire life. He attended Second Ward High School, the first African-American High School in Charlotte and graduated in 1951. His testimony is diverse and covers a broad range of topics, including the education, recreation, and snapshots of everyday life in the community.Read more…

Reverend Barbara Davis Crawford was born and raised in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Charlotte, North Carolina. She attended Myers Street School and Second Ward High School and was very active in the athletics and after school programs at the High School. Reverend Crawford is an Assistant Pastor at Greater Bethel AME Church in Charlotte, formerly known as Bethel AME which was located in the Brooklyn neighborhood. Reverend Crawford helps to define the boundaries of Brooklyn by remembering the various buildings and businesses as a “walk-through” the neighborhood. She is also an outspoken advocate for the preservation of the heritage of the Brooklyn neighborhood, fighting to keep the existing gym in place as a reminder to all generations of the neighborhood and its memories.Read more…

Mr. Calvin C. Davis attended Second Ward High School and Johnson C. Smith University. Mr. Davis was a former Superintendent in the school system as well as a former Director of Special Education. Mr. Davis talked fondly of his memories at Second Ward and the activities at the high school and the rivalries with West Charlotte High. He also speaks to the limitations of changing policy of City officials, discussing one example of what was termed a “done deal.”

Mr. Calvin C. Davis is included of the Second Ward Alumni Interview.

Ms. Naomi A. Davis grew up in the Cherry neighborhood but attended Second Ward High School. Mrs. Davis is married to Calvin C. Davis and talks of their memories together at Second Ward and of her personal achievements. Mrs. Davis is very vocal with regards to school functions, school rivalries, churches in the Brooklyn district and issues of the loss of heritage in Urban Renewal. She is particularly knowledgeable about where churches were relocated and those that merged within Brooklyn. Mrs. Davis participated in a small group interview of Second Ward High School Alumni.

Ms. Naomi A. Davis is included of the Second Ward Alumni Interview.

Mr. Price Davis’ memories span almost twenty years, and, although he resided in Cherry and New York City during this time, attended the first African-American High School in Charlotte, Second Ward, which was located in the heart of Brooklyn. Graduating from Second Ward in 1939 and about to turn eighty years old in two months, Mr. Davis was very emotional and vocal with his testimony, offering a fascinating view into not only the daily life of the residents of Brooklyn but also insights into public services, specifically the actions and policies of the Charlotte Police Department. Mr. Davis describes, in detail, the feelings towards the first black officers in Charlotte, his brutal treatment under white officers, and his ultimate love of the city of Charlotte and how it has changed. Davis participated in two interviews, the second of which was recorded with a small group of Second Ward High School Alumni.

Mr. Price Davis is also included of the Second Ward Alumni Interview

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Mr. Morgan C. EdwardsRead more…

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…

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.

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…

Delores Giles was born in the Blue Heaven section of Brooklyn in 1946, and remained a resident of Brooklyn until the urban renewal programs of the 1960s razed the neighborhood. She attended Second Ward High School from 1958 to 1964 and although she remembers her time there fondly, she also discusses the limitations of involvement for female students, including the classes that she had to take and the lack of athletics for women. Ms. Giles’ family moved to Alexander Street before the urban renewal program took effect, and her house and Second Ward high school were the last structures in her area of Brooklyn to be razed. Ms. Giles also provides fascinating information about the funeral home business in Brooklyn, which acted in lieu of ambulatory services as well as a funeral home. Ms. Giles finishes her oral history by assessing the results of urban renewal and the legacy of the Brooklyn neighborhood.

Delores Giles participated in an interview with Dolores Giles. See: Dolores Giles & Mary Poe

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…

Mr. Reginald Hawkins was born in Beaufort, North Carolina. He attended Johnson C. Smith University and Howard University and completed the coursework for a degree in dentistry. He returned to Johnson C. Smith University and was ordained a Presbyterian Evangelist. He also served in the army—stationed at Wilmack General Hospital in Fort Bragg , North Carolina . Although he was not a resident of Brooklyn , he remembers his first office there. He had a thriving dentist and oral surgery practice at Second and Brevard Streets in the AME Zion Publication Building . He thought of Brooklyn as a “thriving enclave ghetto of blacks,” and noted that “everything you wanted to do was in Brooklyn .” In the interview, Hawkins spoke of his involvement in the landmark case of Swan versus Charlotte-Mecklenburg concerning the busing of black students to other schools. He also focused on the issue of urban development in Brooklyn , something he referred to as “black removal.”Read more…

Mr. Vernon Hernon was born in 1928 at 527 South Brevard Street and raised in the Brooklyn Community. His father died when he was one year of age, so his mother had to raise six children by herself. He and his family attended Ebenezer Baptist Church and he attended Myers Street Elementary School where his aunt was employed as a teacher. He progressed to Second Ward High School and became Student Body President in 1947. After his high school graduation he attended college at Shaw University and Johnson C. Smith University, and then moved to various other locations in the United States before coming back to Charlotte, North Carolina to retire.Read more…

Ms. Bettye Golden Holloway was born in the Cherry neighborhood of Charlotte in 1933, and remained there for seven years before moving to the Brooklyn neighborhood in 1940. After a move to Maryland in the early forties, Mrs. Holloway’s family returned to Brooklyn, where she attended Second Ward High School and took part in several of the many extracurricular activities that the school offered to its students. Mrs. Holloway cites the close-knit community spirit of Brooklyn as its greatest strength as she remembers growing up in the neighborhood. This sense of community extended from the teachers and administrators at Second Ward High School to her neighbors and the families of her friends, and bound all of the residents together. This conversation with Mrs. Holloway also includes illuminating information about the Queen City Classic, the Brevard Street library and various businesses and personalities that survive in the memories of former Brooklyn residents. Read more…

Johnny Holloway, born in Durham, NC, relocated to Charlotte, North Carolina after finishing both his time in the US Army and graduate school. He was instrumental in bringing both Jazz appreciation and marching band orchestration to West Charlotte High School. A thorough participant in the 1950’s Charlotte jazz scene, he brought that same appreciation to the High Schools in which he taught. Many of the Jazz instrumentalists that dealt with him on a professional basis agreed to perform in Charlotte area high Schools. This brought about an educated core of band members that marked superior performance in Charlotte area bands throughout Mr. Holloway’s tenure.Read more…

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. 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…

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. 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…

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…

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…

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…

Ms. Mary S. McGill did not grow up in the Brooklyn community, but became a member of Friendship Baptist Church in 1949, commuting from the Mount Holly area. Sister McGill recounted memories of her activity as a Deaconess and leader in the music ministries of the Church. She and Deacon Walter Kennedy recorded the first album for the Church and continued recording after moving from Brooklyn to help raise money for choir robes and other items the Church needed.

Sister McGill was also the Chairwoman of the Missionary Study and had much to say about the life of the pastor at the time in Brooklyn, Reverend Kerry. Sister McGill mentioned many places of business and locations of other Churches in the Brooklyn area and what stands in their places today. Ms. McGill participated in a group interview with other members of Friendship Baptist Church.

Ms. Mary S. McGill is included in the Friendship Missionary Baptist Church Interview

Dr. John Matthew Murphy Jr. grew up in Brooklyn, graduating from Second Ward High School in 1953. He then left to attend Howard University, Morgan State College and Meharry School of Dentistry.  After time serving in the army and working in Ohio as a dentist, he returned to Charlotte in 1973 to serve in the Mecklenburg Country Health Department and as a visiting clinician at Charlotte’s Memorial Hospital Dental Department. In 1979 he helped originate the Metrolina Health Center now known as CW Williams Community Health Center. When he left Charlotte in the 1950s, Brooklyn knew that urban renewal was coming, by the time he returned in the 1970s the community was gone.

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Mrs. Mae Orr was born and raised in the Greenville community. Her life has been spent almost continuously in some form of education from graduation at West Charlotte and Johnson C. Smith to teaching throughout the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School system. Her experiences both as a student at West Charlotte and a student teacher at Second Ward High allows her to have a unique perspective on the rivalry between the two schools. Her young life included growing up near the famous first African-American policeman Mr. James Ross. Mrs. Orr’s memories of him are a marvelous set of stories.Read more…

Mr. Connie Patton was born in Charlotte, NC and lived most of his early years in the Brooklyn area of Charlotte, NC. As a young man he was a member of the ROTC, through Second Ward High school. He also participated in many social and sporting clubs, such as boxing and baseball. An active member of the church, he warmly remembers the impact that the House of Prayer had on the Brooklyn area, though he was not a member. Upon reaching enlistment age, Mr. Patton joined the United States Navy, where he served with distinction. Upon returning home he witnessed the process of Urban Renewal that the Brooklyn neighborhood underwent. Read more…

Mr. Richard Petersheim is one of two managing partners for the Charlotte office of LandDesign. LandDesign is an architectural firm that specializes in urban design. In the year 2001 LandDesign became the firm selected by Request for Proposal from the City of Charlotte to design a new urban community that would encompass lands from Second Ward formerly known as Brooklyn. The plan involves several city departments, historical groups and former residents of the Brooklyn community. The current plan is to rebuild a diverse community with both working level, rent assisted housing as well as up-scale residences. The current focus is to have 2500 residents by 2025.Read more…

Mary Poe was born in Mecklenburg County in 1945, spent her childhood in the Brooklyn neighborhood. As a resident of 1st Street, she attended Second Ward High School from 1958 to 1965 and she recalls the supportive atmosphere that was fostered at the school by her teachers. Mrs. Poe also fondly remembers the some of the social events in Brooklyn, including dances at the high school and at the YMCA where students from all over the city would congregate to socialize. One of the most revealing aspects of Mrs. Poe’s oral history is her consideration of what it was like to be a young woman in the Brooklyn of the 1960s, including the classes that she was required to take at school and the requirements for getting married. As a resident of Brooklyn during the urban renewal period, Mrs. Poe spends time in this interview discussing how the process of urban renewal was perceived by the community, what the residents of Brooklyn were promised by the city, and what they actually received.

Mary Poe participated in an interview with Dolores Giles. See: Dolores Giles & Mary Poe

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Mr. James Polk was born in Grier Heights (an African American community initially outside of but eventually incorporated into Charlotte, North Carolina; he lives there today. Since he did not live in Brooklyn, he brings a different perspective than most of the people interviewed to get information and meaning about Brooklyn. Mr. Polk had, however, worked in Brooklyn, and visited the community. Working at his uncle’s funeral home, Grier Funeral Home, he got a chance to know its residents from an intimate vantage point. As a man who worked in and visited Brooklyn, Mr. Polk saw its many black businesses and the pride the community took in the stores it patronized. Jim Polk saw urban renewal wipe out Brooklyn. Still, he insisted that urban renewal was good for the community, because some of its residents went from dilapidated housing to better housing. Mr. Polk thinks it is important to tell younger generations about their history, so they will have greater knowledge of their origins and will take pride in them.Read more…

Mr. James Ross II is an active member of the Mecklenburg County Black Heritage Committee. Mr. Ross was raised in Grier Heights and spent the summers in and out of Brooklyn with his grandfather. He is an active supporter of the United House of Prayer for All Peoples. Mr. Ross considers himself an amateur historian and speaks extensively and with confidence about his memories. He has been active in the African-American community since his youth. One experience he had with Mayor Brookshire appears in Alex Coffin’s book Brookshire and Belk: Businessmen in City Hall. In his professional life he has been a Management Consultant.Read more…

Mr. Vernon Sawyer was brought in to help lead the urban renewal program in Charlotte’s inner city.Read more…

Ms. Dorothy Shipman grew up in the Brooklyn community and was originally a member of The House of Prayer Church. She joined Friendship Baptist Church in 1946 after she was married. Sister Shipman was very soft-spoken during the group interview but made a definite statement from the start. She recounted, “When you’re talking about Brooklyn, you are really talking about a section that was made up of the ‘have’ and the ‘have nots’.” She related stories of her father working for the theatre and re-selling day-old popcorn at the Lincoln theatre. Sister Shipman was active in the women’s choir and tells of how her husband was active at Friendship as well. Ms. Shipman participated in a small group interview with other members of Friendship Baptist Church.

Ms. Dorothy Shipman is included in the Friendship Missionary Baptist Church Interview

Mr. H. Milton Short, Jr. served six terms on Charlotte’s City Council (1965-1979), and was the appointed chairman of a committee to research and lobby the state legislature to change a provision that required the city council to sell property in the Brooklyn neighborhood at public auction. Mr. Short expressed his approval of the Urban Redevelopment Plan of the 1960s as a “Win-Win” situation, and explained that this plan had the overwhelming approval of Charlotte’s general public and those who inhabited the Brooklyn neighborhood. He was born on January 5, 1919, in Atlanta, Georgia, the son of Harold M. and Ina Short. Mr. Short is the father of one son, Harold M. Short, III, of Charlotte, North Carolina, and one daughter, Gay S. Patterson, of San Mateo, California. He moved to Charlotte with his family during the 1930s. He graduated from law school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1943, and served in the Army Air Corps during World War II. After his service in the military, Mr. Short practiced law with Whitlock and Dockery for four years, before entering the family furniture business, Mecklenburg Furniture CompanyRead more…

Mrs. Curtina Simmons was born in 1941, and soon after her family re-located to Brooklyn. As a former Brooklyn resident, Mrs. Simmons has close ties with the community, especially due to her educational upbringing at Myers Street Elementary School and Second Ward High School. Teachers at these schools helped to inspire her, enabling her to eventually become a professor at Johnson C. Smith University. She is able to shed light on certain details of the former Brooklyn community, including its origins and its businesses. Mrs. Simmons is useful in exploring the fabric of the former Brooklyn community, and examining why it was a thriving interdependent black community.Read more…

Mrs. Barbara C. Steele is the daughter of Alice Hart and Buster Crawford. She was born and raised in Charlotte and has lived in only two homes her entire life, her present home and her home in Brooklyn. She is 72 years of age and a retired schoolteacher of thirty years. Mrs. Steele attended Myers Street Elementary School and Second Ward High School. Upon graduation from Second Ward, Mrs. Steele attended Johnson C. Smith and received a Bachelor of Arts degree. She and her husband James have been married for 48 years and have no children of their own. Mrs. Steele spoke fondly of her love for Second Ward High School and briefly mentioned Blue Heaven, as that is where her husband grew up. She then focuses attention to urban renewal and how the citizens felt and what kind of actions they took to speak out against their homes being demolished. Mrs. Steele is an important addition to the project as she gives good insight about the feelings of Brooklyn residents in response to urban renewal and she speaks of her love for the cherished community.Read more…

Mr. James “Slack” Steele is the son of Owen and Maggie Steele. He was born and raised in Charlotte and lived in Blue Heaven before moving into the Brooklyn area. He is 76 years of age and retired from a career as a postal worker as well as working in insurance and real estate. Mr. Steele attended Myers Street Elementary School and as he puts it the “Great Second Ward High School.” Upon graduation from Second Ward, he attended Johnson C. Smith for two years and then went into the military. He and his wife Barbara have been happily married for 48 years. Mr. Steele spoke about the feeling of love and family in the community of Brooklyn and his experience at the “Great Second Ward High School.” Mr. Steele is able to recall many of the businesses and churches within Brooklyn. He talks of growing up in Blue Heaven and his strong feelings and opinions about what urban renewal means to him. Mr. Steele also passionately speaks of his feelings towards the politicians during the time of urban renewal as well as today.Read more…

Mr. Arthur L. Stinson was born in 1931 in Lancaster, SC. His family came to the Brooklyn community when he was in his youth. Mr. Stinson grew up in Brooklyn and attended the three major educational institutions that existed in the Brooklyn community: Myers Street Elementary School, Second Ward High School, and Carver College. At a young age, Mr. Stinson was involved in various entrepreneurial pursuits working in the coal yard and wood yard. He is a first hand witness in how the community, especially the schools, provided real world preparation for Brooklyn residents to become entrepreneurs. Mr. Stinson provides some insight on the economic climate of the Brooklyn community and how that impacted its existence.was born in 1931 in Lancaster, SC. His family came to the Brooklyn community when he was in his youth. Mr. Stinson grew up in Brooklyn and attended the three major educational institutions that existed in the Brooklyn community: Myers Street Elementary School, Second Ward High School, and Carver College. At a young age, Mr. Stinson was involved in various entrepreneurial pursuits working in the coal yard and wood yard. He is a first hand witness in how the community, especially the schools, provided real world preparation for Brooklyn residents to become entrepreneurs. Mr. Stinson provides some insight on the economic climate of the Brooklyn community and how that impacted its existence.Read more…

Ms. Daisy Stroud was born in Charlotte on October 12, 1921. She grew up on Seventh Street in First Ward and attended the Alexander Street School. Her mother was a teacher and her father worked in the insurance business. She went to Second Ward High School, graduating at the age of 15 in a class of 137 students. Mrs. Stroud has many fond memories of attending Second Ward High School, of the teachers, and of singing in the school’s choral group. She speaks about Brooklyn being an exciting place that was reminiscent of New York’s Harlem. After high school, Mrs. Stroud attended Fayetteville State College and became a teacher. She is the founder of the Daisy Spears and Gerson L. Stroud Foundation, a non-profit organization which provides scholarship funds to deserving students wishing to attend Johnson C. Smith University or Fayetteville State College. Read more…

Mr. John Thrower became a member of Charlotte’s City Council in 1961. He served in this capacity until 1967, at which time he took a ‘hiatus’ for two years. He decided to run for reelection in 1969, and upon reelection served for two more years. According to Mr. Thrower, he ran for reelection because he missed “all of the hubbub.” Mr. Thrower spoke of the city as a “cancer”: it deteriorated from the center and spread slowly outward. He favored Urban Renewal because it enabled Charlotte’s City Council to cure the ills of its downtown slums, and provided better housing for the inhabitants of the various slums. Mr. Thrower was born on June 23, 1928, off Plaza Road in Charlotte, North Carolina. He is the son of Herbert Thrower, and husband of the late Phyllis Isenhower, also of Charlotte, North Carolina. He attended Dilworth Elementary School, Alexander Graham Middle School, and Central High School. He was employed by McClellan’s Dime Store before serving with the United States Navy. He is the owner of Hertron International, LLC, a chemical company, located on Clanton Road in Charlotte.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…

Mr. Arthur Wallace, Sr. is both the oldest parishioner and the parishioner who has been attending Friendship Baptist Missionary Church the longest. Mr. Wallace is 87 years old. His association with the church dates back to 1933 when he became a member of the church, joined the choir and acted as the church custodian for the first 11 years of his association with Friendship Baptist Missionary Church. Arthur Wallace was born in the Brooklyn neighborhood as were his 6 children. Mr. Wallace provided insight into the divisions within the community and how the churches attempted to be inclusive, encouraging community. One division covered was the “haves” and “have nots” of the neighborhood. The interview was arranged by Friendship Baptist Church and the primary focus of the questions asked was on the church, the role of the church and the transition of the church from Brooklyn.Read more…

Mr. George A. Wallace, Sr. is a leader in the black community and the grandson of a founder of the Grier Heights neighborhood. He works for a non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing the lives of Grier Heights’ residents. In the interview Mr. Wallace gave information concerning the reasons why blacks throughout Charlotte who didn’t live in Brooklyn would visit; how the community was affected by urban renewal; different forms of entertainment for blacks in Charlotte; black entrepreneurship in Charlotte and how blacks should learn a lesson from urban renewal and support activism and home ownership in their communities.Read more…

Ms. Allegra Westbrooks was born on March 13, 1921 in Cumberland, Maryland to Dr. Buford and Rowena Westbrooks. She attended Atlanta University School of Library Services and moved to Charlotte to begin working at the Brevard Street Library in Brooklyn in 1947 and became a member of the East Stonewall Ame Zion Church. She ran the library and began discussion groups to bring members of the African-American community into the library to use the services. She also worked the Book Mobile to bring books to African-American neighborhoods that lacked a well-supplied library. She was promoted to acquisitions for the Main Library in 1950 shortly before the Brevard Street Library was torn down during Urban Renewal in 1951.

Her memories of Brooklyn paint a picture of a tightly knit community that was targeted by Urban Renewal because it was considered the “weakest link” in the Charlotte area. However, regardless of that fact, it was a tremendous loss for the African-American community. The story of the Brevard Street Library delves into the issues of segregation and desegregation and the hard work and determination of the African-American community to find ways to have a strong and active community life. Read more…

Mr. Arthur Williams was born on August 5, 1931 in Charlotte, North Carolina. He is the third of eight children. He lived in Brooklyn from 1936 to 1939 on the last block of Brown Street. Mr. Williams spent a considerable amount of time in Brooklyn, working in a shoe shine business until he was 14 years old and returning often to meet with friends. He opened his own shoe shine business and soon moved it to his uncle’s barber shop. N.G. Edwards Barber was the largest barber shop in Charlotte with nine chairs. Mr. Williams is a member of Grace A.M.E. Zion Church but he had many positive things to say about the House of Prayer for All People and its impact on the Brooklyn community and in the lives of Brooklyn residents. Mr. Williams spent thirty years in the Army as a Master Sergeant at Arms.

Arthur Williams shares his memories of growing up in the Brooklyn neighborhood in Charlotte, North Carolina, also known as Second Ward. He discusses residents and small businesses in Brooklyn, including his uncle’s barbershop, N.G. Edwards Barber, and the shoe shine business that he owned and operated as a boy during the Second World War. He talks in detail about the United House of Prayer for All People, including the founder of the church, Bishop Charles Manuel “Daddy” Grace, differences between the House of Prayer and Grace A.M.E. Zion, the church’s impact on the Brooklyn community, and how other churches later copied the House of Prayer because of its success. He also briefly discusses urban renewal in Charlotte during the 1960s and 1970s and why the younger residents who had left Second Ward during that period did not want to return.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…

Second Interview
Mr. and Mrs. James and Ozener Yancey were interviewed a second time in more detail regarding Brooklyn as opposed to their first interview with Ms. Ida James which focused on the history of the Friendship Baptist Church. They are long time residents of the former Brooklyn neighborhood. James Yancey was a social worker for the city of Charlotte from 1967 through 1969. James Yancey assisted residents through the relocation process once Urban Renewal had identified a property to be condemned. James Yancy had worked prior to this as a Juvenile Probation Officer in the Brooklyn neighborhood. Ozena Yancey grew up in the Brooklyn neighborhood and was married to James at the home of her parents in the Brooklyn neighborhood. The interview conducted was a second interview with questions designed to explore the bidding and relocation process during Urban Renewal.Read more…

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…