William Harris

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.

Part I

Part II