What were some of the first places in Charlotte to be desegregated?

Harding High School

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http://theprincipal.blogspot.com/2008/10/25-best-news-photographs.html
"Ten years after the Brown vs. The Board of Education decision, segregation was still a reality in Charlotte-Mecklenburg. In 1964, the system had 88 single race schools – 57 white and 31 black. In 1965, Charlotte experienced one of the most famous court cases in the history of the county – Swann vs. the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education." This is a picture of Dorothy Counts, one of four black students to be admitted to white schools in the district. She was admitted to Harding High School in September of 1957.

http://www.cms.k12.nc.us/mediaroom/aboutus/Pages/default.aspx

The Coffee Cup Diner

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http://images.travelpod.com/users/artell/1.1248475123.coffee-cup-diner.jpg
The Coffee Cup Diner, located at 914 South Clarkson Street in Charlotte, became the city's first integrated diner in 1968. It was, and is, famous for its warm meals and warm atmosphere. It has been named a melting pot for all of Charlotte's diverse citizens to come and share a good soul-food meal.

 http://www.coffeecupsoul.com/history.html

Elmwood Cemetary & Pinewood Cemetary

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http://www.cmstory.org/history/timeline/default.asp?tp=18&ev=342
A fence had always separated Elmwood Cemetary (White) and Pinewood Cemetary (Black) in Charlotte. Fred Alexander, who was a black city councilman at the time, wanted the fence to be taken down but had been voted against, until Mayor Brookshire casted a deciding vote in favor of taking the fence down. The two cemetaries were finally combined. Above is a picture of Fred Alexander finally seeing the fence being taken down.

Who were some notable figures in Charlotte during desegregation?

Fred Alexander

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http://www.cmhpf.org/Morrill%20Book/CH12.htm
Frederick Alexander was born in Charlotte in 1910. He became the first elected Black city councilman in Charlotte and his soft-spokeness assisted him in winning much white support for the improvement of Black communities. Fred went with a college classmate to work in Africa to liberate its people. While he was there, he realized that he desperately wanted to help his own people in Charlotte, North Carolina.  " “My God,” Alexander remembered saying many years later, “I Came from Africa, and If I can go there to help free HIS  people,  I can go back home and help free my OWN  Africa.”  Alexander carried through with his promise.  “Fred came back to Charlotte with one thing in mind  -- political action,” said noted local author and newspaperman Harry Golden." "

http://www.cmhpf.org/Morrill%20Book/CH12.htm

Harry Golden

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http://www.cmhpf.org/Morrill%20Book/CH12.htm
Harry Golden was born in New York City in 1902. Golden wrote a famous publication called the "Carolina Israelite." Golden included many radical ideas about how to solve the race problem in Charlotte. "Golden's various schemes for solving the racial problem in America were most memorable. Observing that white Southerners were loathe to sit with African Americans on busses or in restaurants, but noting that whites often stood in line with African Americans at grocery stores and other places, Golden called on the public school to remove all chairs from their classrooms. This "Vertical Negro Plan" would thereby overcome Southern reservations about sitting in the same room with the other race. Golden's "White Baby" plan would pave the way for integration of Southern theaters and movie houses by arranging for African Americans to enter these places carrying a white baby."

http://www.answers.com/topic/harry-golden

 Julius Chambers

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http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/alum/blackalumniaward/2004/chambers.jpg
Julius Chambers was born in Mount Gilead, North Carolina, but moved to Charlotte in 1964 after completing his law degree  from UNC Chapel Hill. Julius Chambers served one year as an intern for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. "On January 19, 1965, Julius Chambers , acting on behalf of Vera and Darius Swann , whose son had been assigned to all-black Biddleville Elementary School near Johnson C. Smith University , filed legal briefs in Federal District Court in Charlotte.  Chambers argued that the pupil assignment plan of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools violated the United States Constitution and that the School Board was obligated to take more resolute action to eliminate the vestiges of racial segregation that persisted in the public schools. "

http://www.cmhpf.org/Morrill%20Book/CH12.htm

Reginald Hawkins

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http://www.cmhpf.org/Morrill%20Book/CH12.htm
Reginald Hawkins was a black dentist and presbyterian minister in Charlotte during the Civil Rights Era. Reginald Hawkins was a huge voice in the Black community during desegregation. Mayor Brookshire despised Reginald Hawkins. Hawkins led a giant protest march on May 20, 1963 with students from Johnson C. Smith University against segregation in public places in Charlotte. " He purposely chose the 188th anniversary of the alleged signing of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence in 1775  to stage his protest.  "There is no freedom as long as all of us are not free," the tempestuous dentist and preacher shouted.  The crowd greeted his remarks with  "Yeah" and "No."   "We shall not be satisfied with gradualism," Hawkins proclaimed.  "We want freedom and we want it now."  As the students began to disperse, Hawkins issued a threat to the white leadership of Charlotte.  "Any day might be D Day . . . .  They can either make this an open or democratic city or there is going to be a long siege.  They can choose which way it's going to be." "

http://www.cmhpf.org/Morrill%20Book/CH12.htm

What are some notable events that happen in Charlotte during desegregation?

The Woolworth Sit-In

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http://www.cmstory.org/history/timeline/default.asp?tp=18&ev=330
Woolworth's served only whites and was located in Greensboro, North Carolina. On February 1, 1960, four black college students refused to leave the lunch counter until they were served. Franklin McCain, one of the four, was from Charlotte. Sit-ins like this one became a popular way to protest racial segregation in public places.

Johnson C. Smith Students Protest at Charlotte's Kress Store

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http://www.cmstory.org/history/timeline/default.asp?tp=18&ev=331
This picture shows a few of the students from Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, North Carolina protesting at Charlotte's Kress Store on February 9, 1960. This protest was one of the many to inspire Mayor James Smith to form a committe to solve the problem of racial segregation in Charlotte.

Joe Perkins put in jail for asking for a shoe shine at the Charlotte bus terminal!

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http://www.cmhpf.org/uptownsurveyintroduction.htm
Joe Perkins was a part of the Freedom Riders Organization. The Freedom Riders were a group of activists that traveled through the south, challenging racial segregation. In Charlotte, on May 8, 1961, Joe Perkins, a black Freedom Rider, went into the Whites Only barber shop in the Charlotte bus terminal and asked for a shoe shine. Perkins was immediately arrested and put in jail; one of the many arrests the Freedom Riders underwent. 

Martin Luther King Jr. in Charlotte

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http://www.cmstory.org/history/timeline/default.asp?tp=18&ev=336
On May 31, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. comes to Charlotte to speak to 6 black high schools. King spoke to the group just days after the students of Johnson C. Smith marched through downtown Charlotte to protest segregation laws. King praises the march because he agrees that the protests are starting to have a real impact on the Civil Rights Movement.

Attacks on Charlotte's Civil Rights Activists

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http://www.cmstory.org/history/timeline/default.asp?tp=18&ev=340
The homes of Charlotte's Civil Rights Activists Julius Chambers, Fred Alexander, and Reginald Hawkins are bombed on November 22, 1965. It was a miracle that no one was harmed, but it is a major injustice that no one will even investigate this crime; much less, charge anyone with the crimes. This picture is of Fred Alexanders destroyed home in Charlotte, the next morning, after the bombing.

What was Charlotte like during School Integration and Busing?

Swann vs. Charlotte Mecklenburg Board of Education

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http://www.cmstory.org/history/timeline/default.asp?tp=18&ev=338
Swann vs. Charlotte Mecklenburg Board of Education was a case that would have a national impact in regards to school integration. The Swann couple wanted their son to be enrolled into a school that was near their home. SInce they were black, their son was required to attend an all black school further away from their home. This is a picture of Julius Chambers, the acting lawyer for the Swann case.

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Click on this picture to read the court case of Swann vs. Charlotte Mecklenburg Board of Education

Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools begin Busing

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http://www.cmstory.org/history/timeline/default.asp?tp=18&ev=346
On September 9, 1970, Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools begin busing their students all over the county. The point of this was to integrate Charlotte's school and make a more "equal" racial environment in the schools. The plan back-fired because the majority of the parents protested due to the distance of the schools from their homes and the undesirable environments their children would be learning in. Many parents complain to the school board and the board goes to Supreme Court to appeal Judge McMillians decision to bus the students.

First Black Student to Attend Harding High School

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http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3069/2290073231_b7b82efb2e.jpg?v=1203921066
Dorothy Counts was the first black student to attend Harding High School in Charlotte. Counts was 15 years old at the time and was the daughter of a professor at Johnson C. Smith University. As she walked into the school on September 4, 1957, angry white students threw objects on her, spat on her, told her to go back where she came from. Counts was one of the four black students to walk into an all white school on that day. Below, is a recent interview with counts, taken in 2007; 50 years after her first day at Harding High School.

http://www.cmstory.org/people/people.asp?id=15

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Sheila Florence
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http://thesituationist.files.wordpress.com/2007/02/school-desegregation.jpg
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William Culp
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Latrelle McAllister
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http://blog.seattlepi.com/livingsimply/archives/153798.asp
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Harriet Love

What was it like to live in Charlotte during Desegregation?

Interview with Ms. Annie

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What was your experience of desegregation in Charlotte?

Desegregation in Charlotte began when I was a teenager. Before it happened, I never had too many negative experiences with things being segregated. Now, folks think how horrible it must have been to not have been allowed in certain places; but in all honesty, my family and me ain’t pay no mind to all that. Back then, it was just the way it was. We didn’t really care that we couldn’t go eat in them places. We could eat other places. My parents really just didn’t bother going near those places because they was real high strung and wasn’t about to be embarrassed by no “whites-only” sign.


Matthews, which is where I was raised, didn’t have much racism. I played with white kids and they played with me. Our parents knew each other. I went to an all black school called Matthews Elementary for Coloreds.

Many years down the road, my son was one of the first black students to attend the Matthews Elementary for whites. Things was a lot different for him than they were for me. My son’s school had indoor bathrooms, a better library, white teachers, new text books, etc. I was happy for him. I doesn’t make me bitter. I got a good education at an all black school and I loved it. I don’t regret it one bit.

After those whites-only places were integrated, we still didn’t see no reason to go up in there. If they didn’t want us there before, they probably didn’t want us there then, either. We just kept going to the same places we had been going. We were fine with that.

 

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Joanne Peerman
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http://negroartist.com/CIVIL%20RIGHTS%20images/pages/Freedom%20riders%20march%20through%20Granada,%20Misissippi_jpg.htm
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http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/desegregation.JPG
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http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/jah/91.4/images/hall_fig01b.jpg
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http://research.unc.edu/endeavors/spr2007/images/kkk.jpg