African American and Civil Rights History in Charlotte

Kelly Alexander Sr. reactivated the Charlotte branch of the NAACP in 1940, serving as its president from 1940-1944 and as its executive secretary from 1944 to his death in April 1985. Alexander built the North Carolina chapter into the largest chapter in the nation, earning the nickname “Mr. NAACP."

James "Jimmie" Robert McKee founded the Excelsior Club on Beatties Ford Road in 1944. It was the first establishment of its kind for African Americans in Charlotte, who were excluded from visiting white social clubs and venues.

On December 12, 1951, a group of African American men challenged segregation by attempting to play golf at the publicly-owned Bonnie Brae Golf Course in Revolution Park in Charlotte, and were denied admission. Charles Leeper and fifteen others filed a petition in court later that month, and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund took up their cause.

The city of Charlotte organized the Charlotte Redevelopment Commission, which was charged with redeveloping neighborhoods in decline. During the 1960s and early 1970s, most of the existing neighborhoods and businesses in Second Ward, Charlotte's largest African American community, were demolished, displacing around 1,000 families.

Dorothy Counts, Delois Huntley, Girvaud Roberts, and her brother Gus Roberts became the first African American students to attend four of Charlotte’s all-white schools in 1957. Dorothy Counts attended Harding High School, pictured, for four days before withdrawing for her safety.

Students from Johnson C. Smith University organized sit-ins in Charlotte in 1960. Their efforts led to the integration of many of Charlotte's lunch counter restaurants by July 1960, but other eateries resisted integration. This letter asks the owner of S&W Cafeteria in Charlotte to integrate his restaurant.

The Mayor’s Friendly Relationship Committee was formed in response to sit-in protests of lunch counters in Charlotte in 1960. After integration, Mayor Stanford Brookshire renamed it the Community Relations Committee and the group's work expanded.

Attorney Julius Chambers filed a lawsuit in North Carolina district court, Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, on behalf of ten African American families. The plaintiffs alleged that the school system intentionally ensured that schools would continue to be segregated through assignment policies.

Fred D. Alexander’s election to the Charlotte City Council in 1965 made him the first African American elected to public office in Mecklenburg County since Reconstruction. He served five terms from 1965 to 1974.

The homes of prominent African American civil rights leaders Reginald Hawkins, Julius Chambers, Fred Alexander, and Kelly Alexander were bombed on November 22, 1965. No one was injured, and no arrests were ever made for the bombings. The overwhelming response in Charlotte to the bombing was shock and outrage.

Martin Luther King Jr. came to Johnson C. Smith University to address the Catawba Synod Commission on Religion and Race in 1966. Around this time, King was pushing for better housing in Chicago. Dr. King was assassinated two years later.

Almost six years had passed since Julius Chambers filed the initial pleading in Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, which came before the United States Supreme Court on October 12, 1970. The Court ruled that courts are authorized to exercise broad powers to oversee and produce solutions to achieve school integration.