Charlotte's Brooklyn

Home to schools, churches, civic organizations, black-owned businesses, and over a thousand families, Brooklyn was the cultural and economic epicenter of black Charlotte. From the late 1800s through the 1960s, this city within a city provided opportunity and sanctuary for African Americans in a segregated South.

In the years following the Civil War, formerly enslaved African Americans contributed to the growth of Charlotte, establishing communities in two of Charlotte’s four wards. While both Second and Third wards had sizeable black populations by 1900, Second Ward began to emerge as the heart of black Charlotte.

By the early 1890s, Logtown had become Brooklyn – a burgeoning city within a city, much like the town of Brooklyn on the verge of annexation by New York City.

At the same time, across the South and in Charlotte, racial lines hardened. As Reconstruction gave way to Jim Crow, a campaign of white supremacy strictly enforced segregation. No longer welcome on Charlotte’s main streets, disenfranchised African Americans turned to Brooklyn.

Despite Brooklyn’s affluence, it was the poverty, health concerns, and crime that captured the headlines as city officials called for the neighborhood’s demolition. Absentee landlords raked in large profits as they let their properties deteriorate. The local media highlighted poorer and rougher areas like Blue Heaven and “Murder Corner” that portrayed Brooklyn as a dangerous community right outside Charlotte’s main business district. White-collar workers commuting from Myers Park and other upper-class white suburbs had to drive by Brooklyn every day on their way to and from uptown. By 1957, Brooklyn had become an “eyesore” city officials decided they could not ignore.

 

As the Charlotte Redevelopment Commission bought up Brooklyn properties, many land owners refused to take the commission’s first offer, opting to settle the matter in court. Those property owners who could secure legal representation often succeeded. For instance, absentee landlord J. S. Ramsey of Darlington, S. C. rejected the $160,000 offered for his forty rental houses and a store located on two acres of land. The court sided with Ramsey, awarding him $191,621, a 20% increase. The Redevelopment Commission offered Bishop Dale $9,400 for his home, and he walked away with $13,071, a 39% increase. However, Dale rented office space for his insurance and real estate business and only received a $150 moving allowance.

Efforts to keep the soul of Brooklyn alive began as urban renewal ended. In 1977, James Jeeter, Director of the Afro-American Cultural and Service Center, and Rev. DeGrandval Burke, produced a 50-page pictorial essay called The Brooklyn Story.

In 1983, Cecilia J. Wilson worked with the Second Ward Alumni Association to install a historical marker at the site of the school.

Brooklyn’s history hit the stage in 1996 when playwright Ruth Sloane and director-choreographer Barbara Howse-Meadows produced “The Second City,” an 80-minute play about Brooklyn.

In addition to the annual picnics and commemorative events held by the National Second Ward Alumni Association, Frank Manago organized the Brooklyn Heritage Reunion to include residents of the neighborhood who may not have attended Second Ward.