- [Announcer] This is a production of PBS Charlotte.
(upbeat funk music)
- [Narrator] Neighborhoods built in the time
of the segregated south,
neighborhoods that offered Charlotte's
African-American community opportunity.
- [Dorothy] Everybody in the neighborhood knew each other,
everybody in the neighborhood took care of each other.
- [Narrator] Neighborhoods built
around Johnson C. Smith University,
which, to this, day provides a catalyst for opportunity.
- This is one place that we could go,
being special when we lived in the segregated world.
- [Narrator] Neighborhoods where African-American doctors,
lawyers, teachers, professors, masons, nurses, housekeepers,
pastors, civil rights leaders, and others called home.
There's a rich history here.
- We're in an area that has been a center
for black cultural life for the intellectual community
around the University for over 150 years.
- [Narrator] But change is coming.
- What I see happening is
that people are moving into our neighborhoods
and they don't know the history of the neighborhood.
- We should all learn to work together,
live together, play together.
- [Narrator] Charlotte's historic west end.
The people who call it home, the beacon on the hill
that offered security, opportunity,
and a pathway to success.
Long-time residents and others are now working
to preserve that history,
as the west end evolves with the times.
That and more on Trail of History.
(upbeat music)
(inquisitive music)
- So we're leaving historic
Johnson C. Smith.
I'm Tom Hanchett, I'm a community historian,
I've been workin' in Charlotte since the 1980s.
- [Narrator] On this day,
Hanchett, along with John Howard,
venture out into the west end.
- [Tom] One of the most historic parts
of Charlotte is the area around Johnson C. Smith University,
just west of uptown.
- [Narrator] The two often team up and offer tours
of the area to different groups.
- And you ended up renting for generations.
- [Narrator] Howard's background is in city planning.
He's spent years working on Charlotte's west side.
- West side's got some great views.
It does sit kind of on a higher plane than the rest
of the city so we have some really dramatic views
of the city from here.
- [Narrator] And it's that view and proximity
to Charlotte's thriving uptown spurring change.
Like an extension of the street car.
- Street cars tend to increase property values
and they also have a sense of permanence
for a lot of people, developers in particular,
so I think when the street car starts running,
you'll see another major sweep of change,
in terms of land use.
- [Narrator] Hanchett and Howard know progress is inevitable
but they're working to limit the impact felt
by long term residents.
They want to retain the identity
of these west side neighborhoods,
which is why they give these tours.
Tours they hope will build bridges in a community
that's proud of it's history and sees a strong future.
(thoughtful music)
The west end we know today was once farmland
but that all started to change after the Civil War.
- Johnson C. Smith started out right after the Civil War
as Biddle Institute, which was an academy
to train preachers and teachers.
The Presbyterian Church very much into having a literate,
ministerial core and when African-Americans
in slavery became free, they said, "We need leaders,
we need preachers, we need teachers."
And initially Biddle Institute taught basic literacy.
- [Narrator] Biddle Institute started in 1867
and found it's permanent home in 1876.
- It's there because a white landowner,
William R. Myers, same guy behind Myers Park,
gave land for a number of African-American institutions
after the Civil War.
- [Narrator] In 1883, the institute built
the iconic Biddle Memorial Hall.
Fast forward to the 1920s.
After a generous donation,
the school was renamed Johnson C. Smith University.
For more than 100 years, the institution has served
as a place of higher education and a catalyst
for development in the African-American community.
But during the uncertainty of the civil rights movement,
it served as a symbol of refuge.
- The west side of town was both black and white.
The Seversville neighborhood, right near the university,
was a white neighborhood into the 1970s
but as older neighborhoods
toward the center city were demolished
in quote-on-quote urban renewal in the 1960s,
African-Americans got pushed out
and tended to settle near the university
because it was such a beacon of learning,
a beacon of achievement.
- We are in Biddleville.
We just passed Smallwood and Biddleville is this park,
this kind of amalgamation of different neighborhoods.
So we're across the street from Johnson C. Smith University
and this is a mostly single-family neighborhood
but there's also churches here, not too much multi-family,
so it's a little bit different than Wesley Heights.
It's definitely much more single family.
We just lost a few homes on our left and our right
that were original that were torn down
but one great story is Foster Village over here
on the right hand corner.
- [Narrator] According to Hanchett,
this large brick home once belonged
to JSCU's first African-American professor.
Today his old home has new purpose.
- Very pleased to see that the historic landmarks commission
and Johnson C. Smith partnered a couple of years ago
on renovating that building, restoring that beautiful porch
and the George E. Davis house is now Foster Village.
Foster kids coming out of foster care,
that ends at the end of high school
and so many of them don't make it to college
and what Foster Village is is a place
where they can find the support they need to become part
of this college community, this beacon on the hill.
- [Narrator] Back on the tour.
- [Tom] Talk about Washington Heights.
This is what Tom calls the first
and maybe only African-American streetcar suburb.
Definitely the only one in Charlotte.
All the other ones went
to the Elizabeth-Dilworth-Myers Park neighborhoods,
which are all white.
This is the only one that was really built in
and around the streetcar.
It has gone through some changes.
It was built as a middle-class black neighborhood, actually,
and, over the years, it has kind of gone into disrepair.
It's become mostly rental up and to this point.
But I have seen some signs on this tour
that we are seeing some reinvestment here,
which is a very good sign.
- And part of that is because it has
such a fierce, loving neighborhood here.
- Yes, Mattie Marshall, who has been here fighting
and pushing and in the ears of planners like me
and leaders and mayors and council
to help bring investment
and help improve safety in this community.
- I live in, I like to refer
to it as historic Washington Heights.
A neighborhood that's, I'd say 0.9 miles
from Johnson C. Smith University
and named in honor of Booker T. Washington
and it's a bungalow-style neighborhood.
- [Narrator] Mattie Marshall serves as the President
of the Washington Heights Neighborhood Association.
Just on the edge of her neighborhood lies another icon
of Charlotte's African-American community.
- Washington Heights is also notable
because that is the location of the Excelsior Club.
The Excelsior Club was a coming together place
for African-American professionals
and a lot of the people who built black institutions,
doctors, attorneys, ministers, folks like that
always need a place to come together informally,
and talk and strategize and that's what a country club does.
Well, that's what the Excelsior Club did.
- You could let your hair down
and then dance and just enjoy.
- Weddings were there, birthday parties were had
at the Excelsior Club as well.
And yes, political gatherings.
- [Mattie] You know, they would come and gather there,
not only during election time,
but when they wanted to feel the pulse of the community.
They know where that pulse was
and that's where they needed to be.
- And so having people come together,
having them spend time at the Excelsior Club,
was a place where new ideas could bubble up,
where people could come together ostensibly
to play bridge or to hang out or to listen to music.
Come for the fish fry, come for the dances, whatever.
But it's in those coming togethers
that a true community is built.
(thoughtful music)
- [Narrator] Before the Fair Housing Act of 1968,
there was a nationwide discriminatory practice
on placing deed restrictions barring the sale
of a home based on the buyer's race.
In Charlotte, this practice led to the creation
of neighborhoods like McCrorey Heights.
- It's H. L. McCrorey, remember H. L. McCrorey
from Johnson C. Smith created this
as a neighborhood for African-American professionals,
including folks like Robert H. Greene.
- African-American doctor, couldn't live in Myers Park,
he's well esteemed, couldn't live in the Dilworths
of the world here 'cause of deed restrictions,
so he settled here along the west side.
- [Narrator] Many of Charlotte's civil rights leaders
called the west side home.
It was around the dinner table and front porches
in these neighborhoods more strategy
for change was discussed.
- Because you think of the people who lived
in those neighborhoods would talk
about Doctor Reginald Hawkins,
you talk about Kelly Alexander,
you talk about Attorney Bayle.
These are the people who gathered
to talk about the Beltons or the Lanes
so you think in terms of these are the people
who got together around the tables
to start having these conversations.
A lot of it actually came from the faith community,
in terms of civil rights back in those days.
A lot of 'em were right there in,
who lived on the west side.
(thoughtful music)
- [Narrator] Dorothy Counts-Scoggins was a teenager
living on the west side in the 1950s.
In 1957, three years after Brown,
there were a group of families in Charlotte,
led by the late Kelly Alexander,
who at that time was President
of the NAACP here in Charlotte.
He approached my family of a possibility
of enrolling their children in a predominantly white school.
I went to Harding, there was not a,
I went there, I ended up going four days.
A lot of harassment during that time,
a lot of nonacceptance, a lot of joking me based
on the color of my skin but I always say
that my going to Harding was a right time for us
but it was not a right time for them.
- [Narrator] Eight years later,
with racial tension still high in Charlotte,
the unthinkable happened in McCrorey Heights.
- Dr Reginald Hawkins' house, that house was bombed in 1965.
Reginald Hawkins was an African-American dentist
who was not dependent on white dollars
'cause he served African-American customers,
and so he could be a little bit more pushy
and he delighted in that.
He led the marches that desegregated
the upscale restaurants, he led the marches
that desegregated the hospital system
and was one of the plaintiffs
in the Swann vs Mecklenburg school busing case.
November of 1965, his house and three others
were bombed in the middle of the night
and nobody knows still who did it.
- [Narrator] Recently, Hanchett took on a project
in McCrorey Heights capturing the stories
of those who call the neighborhood home.
- I'm an urban historian, I'm a person who,
like many Southerners, feels the power of place
and here on the west side around Johnson C. Smith,
the places, some are humble, some are fine
but all of those places have stories
and by focusing on McCrorey Heights,
a place that is clearly special on the west side,
that began to unlock stories of history makers.
The McCrorey Heights neighborhood was full
of very highly educated people.
Most houses had not one but two folks
who had a college degree, many houses,
some with a masters, a number of houses
with doctorate degrees.
166 houses, 166 stories and they're now on the web.
If you Google McCrorey Heights and historysouth.org,
you can find the history.
(upbeat music)
- [Narrator] Back at Johnson C. Smith University.
- My name's Brandon Lunsford,
I am the university archivist and digital manager.
I take care of the history of the university.
The goal is to preserve, protect
and display the history of the university.
- [Narrator] And with more than 100 years
in the books for JCSU, that's a lot of history.
More than enough to keep Lunsford busy
but seeing a need in the greater west end community,
he took the initiative to do more.
- Our collections are very focused
on the history of the university, Johnson C. Smith,
but as I've become archivist, my goal has been
to sort of expand the neighborhood
and discover a little bit more history
of the west end and the neighborhood surrounding the school.
- [Narrator] To curate and share the history
and stories of the different west end neighborhoods,
Lunsford launched the website westendcharlotte.org.
- You have no idea what's on these streets
and what's down these side streets.
If you went off this road,
you would see these amazing neighborhoods
from the '30s, '40s and '50s,
like suburban American neighborhoods
that you honestly thought about white people living
in in the '30s, '40s and '50s.
But these were middle-class black families
that were living here and doing well
and, like, building a community.
And they all knew each other.
The most important thing, I think, is
for the people that are moving in here
to realize the history that exists in this neighborhood
and to realize what they're moving into
and how important this place was
and not to be just blindly moving into a place
and not understanding where they're living,
so I think that's what we're trying to do with the map.
- [Narrator] It's an interactive website.
When he started the project, Lunsford took advantage
of the extensive James Peeler photograph collection.
It's part of the Inez Moore Parker archives at JCSU.
- What I'm trying to do right now
is recreate the built environment of the west end
so, like, what school was here?
What church was here?
What business was here?
And you do that through pictures
and Peeler captured everything.
It's very useful.
He's been amazing for me to have this at my disposal.
That's what really inspired me to do this map was
that I knew we had enough pictures
through his collection to get started.
As we started going through,
we realized there was a lot in there,
I mean way more than we had thought.
We still don't have any idea how much is really
in there and 200, 300,000 items.
(relaxed funk music)
- [Narrator] All donated by Peeler's daughter,
Latrelle Peeler-McAllister.
- My dad was a portrait photographer
that took photographs of many activities
in Charlotte, North Carolina for almost 50 years.
Today, we are in the James B. Duke Library
at Johnson C. Smith University,
and this room has been dedicated
to sorting and digitizing the work
of my father's photography collection.
- [Narrator] Peeler grew up off Beatties Ford Road,
attended Johnson C. Smith and first learned photography
while serving in the Korean War.
- After he returned home, he decided to go
to New York Institute of Photography
where he honed his craft and then came back home
and set up shop here along the Beatties Ford Road corridor
here in Charlotte, North Carolina.
- [Narrator] Back in Charlotte's west end,
Peeler went to work capturing moments
and memories in Charlotte's African-American community.
- He had a variety of subjects.
He did portrait photography, group photography.
He did a lot of weddings, family reunions,
photographs of prominent politicians in the area.
- To me, the most amazing thing about Peeler was
that he was so diverse.
The amount of things that he took pictures
of was just incredible, so, I mean,
he would take accident photos
of people who had been in accidents.
He would take school photos, there was weddings, funerals,
there's lots of funerals, lots of weddings.
- He did at one time, he did school photography,
especially at the segregated schools
back in the '50s and '60s,
he did photography work for them.
He did a lot of photography work here
at Johnson C. Smith for the Director of Public Relations
so he captured photographs of our homecoming,
our homecoming parade, the football games, the queens.
He contributed to the yearbook, taking pictures
of the faculty and the staff.
- [Narrator] Peeler even captured Martin Luther King Jr.
during a visit to Charlotte.
- [Latrelle] When he visited Charlotte, Martin Luther King,
he was called on by students, primarily students
at Johnson C. Smith during the protest in the '60s
to capture their efforts for the civil rights movement.
- [Narrator] For McAllister, she knows her father's work
and legacy are in good hands.
- The archivists here have gained regional
and national acclaim for their work.
It was important to me that the work stayed
in the community and especially that it helped
to enrich the collection of his alma mater,
Johnson C. Smith.
(happy music)
- [Narrator] As the tour continued,
Hanchett and Howard discussed
how the west end today is changing.
The good and the not so good.
- Got a lot of really good things off the corridor,
Wesley Heights is over here to our right.
Historic neighborhood, nationally and locally,
and it's the only one actually in this corridor area.
So the great thing about these
old neighborhoods is there's a great mix of styles here.
Used to be able to buy a home here
for $10, $15, $20,000 back in the '80s.
It's gone up substantially in value,
which has caused some strain.
It's a mix, it's a mix of quandaplexes and duplexes
and you can't sometimes tell one from the other.
But now those are being turned into single family homes,
so we're kinda losing that middle part
of residential housing here.
- [Narrator] As you drive around these streets,
it's clear change is coming.
The proximity to Charlotte's vibrant uptown draws people
to the west end but, for some, there can be trust issues.
- Everything that happened from urban renewal
and how those government actions affected
how people moved, either willfully or unwillfully,
back in the '50s and '60s,
a lot of folks who were impacted
by that are still here with us.
Their families and descendants are still with us.
The businesses that used to be downtown are now
in different places or not existing anymore.
So understanding that history is very important.
- [Narrator] Still, for the long-time residents,
like Mattie Marshall and Dorothy Count-Scoggins,
there's an optimistic concern.
- People need to know the history
and need to understand relationship building.
- And when I moved in 2002 in that neighborhood,
change wasn't taking place as it is now.
But is has, I have seen over the last 10 years,
it's constant change and when I say change,
what is happening is that a lot of the homes
that were in that area are not being necessarily restored,
but they're being torn down and new homes have been built.
So what I see happening is that people are moving
into our neighborhoods and they don't know the history
of the neighborhood.
And I have no problem with change,
but I think, what is important to me is
that the history be maintained.
They need to learn the history
and help us to maintain the history because they live,
they've chosen to live in a historic area.
(upbeat music)
- [Narrator] One group that's been proactive
in the west end, helping not only to preserve history
but also helping the west end reimagine itself,
is Charlotte Center City Partners.
- A lot of times when you see neighborhoods change
so rapidly, there's often that friction
of older residents and the newer residents
not really having those meaningful
opportunities to interact.
But our work, and the neighborhood leaders' work,
are really focused on being intentional
about creating meaningful gathering opportunities
to make sure that folks know each other.
They're working pretty well together.
I was just at a community meeting last week,
and you would see a number of different residents,
old and new and young, black and white,
all mixed in together, working together,
and that, I'd say that's a lot of the hard work
of the neighborhood leaders over the years.
They have been really intentional
about being inclusive in whatever they do.
And so as the area grows,
then that inclusion is extremely important.
- It's important socially with civil rights history
and fair housing and how people moved to this part of town
and what got built here and how do we kind of protect
what people really want to protect.
So, that's the main thing is what do people want out
of what we can do, instead of what we think
we should do for them.
So, again, it's working in tandem
with our neighborhoods and residents.
- [Narrator] Setting the stage for inclusive redevelopment,
Mosaic Village, a mix of college student housing on top,
and office and retail space on the bottom.
- Mosaic Village is a culmination of a partnership
between Johnson Smith University,
the Griffin Brothers family
and the actual architect himself,
who is also invested here financially.
And Mosaic being kind of a tapestry
of culture, of history, that kind of,
it kind of culminates what this area is really known for.
- [Narrator] Along with the new investments
and real estate, the city has invested substantially
in the west end with the streetcar extension
that goes right in front of Mosaic Village,
further enhancing the west end's connection to uptown.
- Now streetcars coming back,
we took it away back in the '30s
and now we're bringing it back
on Trade and Beatties Ford Roads,
so we're kind of repeating history in a way.
- [Narrator] As the old saying goes,
"Nothing stays the same."
Change is coming to the historic west end
but Alysia Osborne, with the Charlotte Center City Partners,
says with balanced steps the change can be positive.
- Being able to create a meaningful place
for folks to live, play and work.
All that's at stake, so it's really important
that whatever happens in terms of planning
and development and place making and creating new things
for people to experience that this place was great before
and it will be great in the future
and make sure that folks understand what their place is
in that new experience in west end.
- [Narrator] The banners in the west end read,
"Proud history. Strong future."
The winds of change may be upon us
but Charlotte's historic west end is a special place,
one that needs to be remembered, restored and revitalized.
The history serves to an honor a community
where generations thrived in the face of racism.
Where so many lived out their American dream.
So as new life and new construction are infused
into the daily landscape of these special neighborhoods,
there is renewed desire to remember the past.
Many here are determined for the world to know,
not just where they're going, but where they've been.
It's an inherited realm of history
that all of us should know and none should forget.
(upbeat music)
- [Announcer] A production of PBS Charlotte.
(musical flourish)
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