Charlotte's Wedge and Crescent

Hi welcome to a new episode of Where We’ve Been, a Charlotte Story. Today I’d like to spend some time exploring the Wedge and Crescent. No, that’s not some type of pastry found at your neighborhood coffee shop. Rather, Wedge and Crescent is an interesting feature of demographics and economics found within Charlotte proper. Its formation and existence is one mired in a long history of racial segregation and redlining.

Being a city of the south, Charlotte has been one to stick to the tradition of finding ways to screw with the black residents in the city during the Jim Crow era. (less than 50 years ago). One peculiarity left over from this time is the two starkly different areas that are the subject of today’s episode. If you overlay a map of the city’s wealth distribution with the racial makeup, you’ll see why it is called the Wedge and Crescent.

First the Wedge. This neighborhood stretches from the southeast of Uptown all the way to 485 and wedged (see what I did there) in between South Blvd and Monroe Road. The most notable thing about this cluster of neighborhoods is that they are mostly white, and the average income and property values are well above Charlotte’s more diverse communities. Here, you’ll find the highest concentration of wealth in the city. In neighborhoods like Myers Park, Dilworth, and Quail Hallow, you’ll find multi-million dollar homes and incomes greater than 90,000 dollars.

In general, residents in the Wedge have better access to transit, public amenities, and education opportunities.

“On the other side of the coin”, but more accurately, the highway, you have the Crescent. This large cluster of neighborhoods is defined by its crescent shape to the north and west of Charlotte’s core. For the most part, the Crescent is almost the opposite of the Wedge. Its population is mostly Black and persons of color, and economically depressed when compared to the thriving core that the Wedge is a part of. Neighborhoods like Windsor Park, Derita/Statesville, and those along the West Blvd. Corridor have historically seen less attention than those found in the Wedge.

During the Jim crow era, Charlotte aggressively packed Black residents into neighborhoods to the west. Over decades of systemic discrimination and red-lining, physical barriers such as highways, cropped up to destroy and/or separate Black neighborhoods throughout the city’s core from “white neighborhoods”.

While the areas closer to uptown are quickly becoming gentrified, the neighborhoods further out in the Crescent have continued to see less opportunities. Unlike the Wedge where money is more available, incomes in the Crescent have remained stagnant and jobs and quality education harder to find. In the past few years, there has been a push for racial justice and economic equity to repair what centuries of racism and discrimination have caused. The success of which is still to be seen.

Opportunity zones are creating opportunity — for Charlotte's rich - Axios Charlotte

One peculiarity of Charlotte’s wealth neighborhoods overlaying with the city’s racial makeup reveals a stark difference between those who have and those who do not.

Where We’ve Been introduces the Wedge and Crescent. Also known as the Arc and Wedge, this peculiar feature of Charlotte is the centerpiece of what economic mobility looks like in the Queen City. For a city of banks and lots of capital, your life and opportunities heavily depend on you zip code, and more accurately, which side of the road you hail from.

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In the Valley - The Tale of Charlotte's Hidden Valley

Introduction:

Nestled between North Tryon Street and I-85 is one of Charlotte’s most infamous neighborhoods. While that is not the most accurate way to describe the neighborhood today, Hidden Valley’s recent past still hangs over the community. When development beginning in 1959, Hidden Valley was initially intended to house white middle class families. But with the destruction of neighborhoods like Brooklyn and the construction of freeways around Uptown carving up communities, many of Charlotte’s Blacks found refuge across the city. However, due to racism and lies, the influx of Black residents led to large swaths of the neighborhood’s white residents to move away; causing the city to ignore and neglect the neighborhood for decades. This neglect left Hidden Valley with a nationally bad reputation. But in recent years, things may be changing. With the completion of the Blue Line extension and the hard work of the Hidden Valley Community Association, the area surrounding Hidden Valley has seen more economic activity, development, and attention. But with all this happening, will Hidden Valley be able to maintain its identity, or will it change and gentrify like Southend? Or can Charlotte learn from its past? Stick around and while we explore Hidden Valley! With special guest, Frederick Murphy.

The Beginning of Hidden Valley:

With the growing national popularity of suburbs in the States, Hidden Valley was created in 1959 initially as a white middle class neighborhood. Developed and built in 1960 by George S. Goodyear as one of the largest subdivisions in the city. A fifteen-minute drive from uptown Charlotte, Hidden Valley contains over 4000 houses and is lined with streets named after characters from old European folktales. The neighborhood was planned to be wedged between Tom Hunter Road to the East, Sugar creek road to the West, Reagan Drive to the North, and Tryon St. to the south. One prime example is that the neighborhood’s middle school is off of Snow White Lane.

For 10 years Hidden Valley was exclusively white residents, but beginning in the 1970s, Black residents began to move in. The first Black couple to move into the neighborhood were Dr. Raleigh and Thelmetia Bynum. Around this time, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School district was ordered to desegregate. A result of the Supreme Court’s decision in Swann vs Charlotte-Mecklenburg. Facing the fact that they’ll have to share spaces with Black people, large swaths of whites from across the city began to leave neighborhoods for the suburbs. Coupled with “Urban Renewal” and the destruction of historically Black communities, areas across the city were left less populated and neglected. This destruction of housing in predominantly Black neighborhoods led to many people looking for a new neighborhood, Hidden Valley among them.

Life in Hidden Valley:

Around the same time that the neighborhood’s first Black family moved into Hidden Valley the Hidden Valley Action and Awareness group was created. According to the Hidden Valley Community Association, the Awareness group was made up of “45 women who wanted to strengthen the relationships between black and white neighbors through socials, community improvement project and a monthly newsletter…”. This coincided with the Supreme Court’s decision to force Charlotte Mecklenburg schools to desegregate the district and bus students across the county.

Because of racist attitudes towards Black people, the influx of Black residents into Hidden Valley led to the neighborhood’s white residents to leave in what is known as white flight. White Flight is “the departure of white people from places (such as urban neighborhoods or schools) increasingly or predominantly populated by minorities…” White flight was fueled by ignorance and hate. Another factor pushing this was by banks in the form of redlining and the real estate industry spreading lies that essentially said when Black residents moved into the neighborhood, their presence will cause property values to drop. The federal and local governments played a role in this as well through their policies. Federally, the FHA pushed the idea of the suburbs and subsidized the construction of communities where the main draw was escaping the reality of sharing a space with people of color. These factors each played a role in pulling white residents away from neighborhoods across the county, Hidden Valley included causing a massive drain on neighborhoods and cities economically. This in turn led to a self-fulfilling prophecy where banks and governments would use the results of their efforts to continually ‘Redline’ Black and Minority neighborhoods, locking out any future investments into the neighborhoods and, overtime, diminishing the number of opportunities for its residents.

Sources:

About Us (hiddenvalleyclt.com)

History Before Us - The True American History | Black History

Home Again Foundation - Housing, Nonprofit, Charitable Organization (homeagainclt.org)

Brooks, D. (2021, July 16). Report Confirms Charlotte’s Lack Of Upward Mobility, Offers Priorities. WFAE 90.7 - Charlotte’s NPR News Source. Retrieved October 24, 2021, from https://www.wfae.org/local-news/2020-11-20/report-confirms-charlottes-lack-of-upward-mobility-offers-priorities.

Carter, B. (2012, February 16). Hidden Valley out front in mounting comeback Challenged neighborhood eyes revitalization. The Charlotte Post. Retrieved October 24, 2021, from http://www.thecharlottepost.com/index.php?src=permalinks/Hidden_Valley_out_front_in_mounting_comeback#:~:text=Developed%20in%201959%2C%20Hidden%20Valley,Neighborhood%20Quality%20of%20Life%20Index.

de la Canal, N. (2018, October 15). FAQ City: What Happened To Charlotte’s Earle Village? WFAE 90.7 - Charlotte’s NPR News Source. Retrieved October 24, 2021, from https://www.wfae.org/local-news/2018-10-09/faq-city-what-happened-to-charlottes-earle-village

Graff, M. (2020, January 27). Brookhill: How one of Charlotte’s most complicated and misunderstood developments could end up a success story. Axios Charlotte. Retrieved October 24, 2021, from https://charlotte.axios.com/193571/brookhill-how-one-of-charlottes-most-complicated-and-misunderstood-developments-could-end-up-a-success-story/

Kamin, D. (2020, August 27). Black Homeowners Face Discrimination in Appraisals. The New York Times. Retrieved October 24, 2021, from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/25/realestate/blacks-minorities-appraisals-discrimination.html

Vega, T. (2016, August 9). Blacks will take hundreds of years to catch up to white wealth. CNNMoney. Retrieved October 24, 2021, from https://money.cnn.com/2016/08/09/news/economy/blacks-white-wealth-gap/index.html

Wickersham, S. (2019, November 23). Hidden Valley residents continue to improve neighborhood’s reputation. WSOC TV. Retrieved October 24, 2021, from https://www.wsoctv.com/news/9-investigates/hidden-valley-residents-continue-to-improve-neighborhood-s-reputation/822465035/

The Importance of Community Organizing in Black Neighborhoods

Charlotte residents and community leaders Rickey Hall and Ismaail Qaiyim join in for a discussion on the importance of community organizing in Black neighborhoods. As well as highlighting the other issues facing the west-side of Charlotte.

Show Notes:

1. Housing Justice Coalition Facebook: Housing Justice Coalition CLT | Facebook

2. West Blvd Neighborhood Coalition: West Blvd NC – Neighborhood Coalition

3. Biden Administration looks to correct past destruction from Urban Renewal: Here's What's In President Biden's $2 Trillion Infrastructure Proposal | WFAE 90.7 - Charlotte's NPR News Source

4. Bloomberg - The Paycheck: Pay Check Podcast Episode 4: Wealth Inequities for Black American Home Buyers - Bloomberg

5. Upward mobility in Charlotte: Report Confirms Charlotte's Lack Of Upward Mobility, Offers Priorities | WFAE 90.7 - Charlotte's NPR News Source

6. Cost of housing in Charlotte: Affordable housing in Charlotte | wcnc.com

7. Who is buying Charlotte’s houses: Supply of Charlotte NC homes for sale shrinking rapidly | Charlotte Observer

8. West Side Community Land Trust – Homepage: Home | West Side Community Land Trust (westsideclt.org)

9. CATS Silver Line project plan: Projects & Transit Planning > Silver Line (charlottenc.gov)

10. WBNC Food COOP: Three Sisters Market (@3smclt) • Instagram photos and videos

11. Charlotte's Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) - (charlotteudo.org)

12. Charlotte Future Comprehensive Plan Hits Delay as Discussions Continue (qcnerve.com)

Intro Music – The Souse Don by Sam Barsh

Outro Music – Oceanscraper by xJWill

Brooklyn: A Tale of Two Main Streets

Brooklyn and Uptown :

Prologue:

If you were to drive through Uptown today, you will see tall towers, parks, wide-open plots of land, and construction. But at one point in time, driving through it looked completely different.

 This is the story of Brooklyn. Follow us as we explore this once a thriving African American neighborhood, what happened to it, and its future!

Beginning:

Situated in Charlotte’s Second Ward, Brooklyn was downhill from Uptown. Making life in the area harsh because in the late 19th century, sewers were not widespread and areas downhill were prone to get that runoff. In the late 18-hundreds, the area was known as Logtown; a place where recently emancipated slaves took up residence. As the 20th began, the population was solidly African American. And It was not until the mid-1910s that Logtown would become generally known as Brooklyn.

It was during this period that Brooklyn started to develop into a thriving, self-sustaining community. The neighborhood’s housing supply ranged from shanty towns to the grand homes of black professionals.

Where Biddleville was centered around higher education and was an bordering area of the city, Brooklyn was the Main Street for Charlotte’s African Americans. Many important landmarks in the community include the Myers Street School (Charlotte’s first black public school 1886-1907), the city’s black YMCA, a Library for blacks, and much more.

Brooklyn was the reaction of the systematic oppression and disenfranchisement by the powers at the time. There was a need to provide opportunities, services, and political clout for black Charlotteans.

Blacks also flocked to Brooklyn for affordable and available housing. This was a side-effect of red lining. The private and federal systems set up to prevent African Americans and other minorities from living or buying homes in white neighborhoods. By the 1940s the federal government began programming mortgages for the west side of Charlotte for Blacks. This had the consequence of draining the neighborhood of its residents. Another blow to Brooklyn was the construction of Independence BLVD, which cut a swath out of Brooklyn and highlighted the remaining devastated areas.

Additional Reading:

https://uncc.worldcat.org/title/brooklyn-story/oclc/6614067

https://youtu.be/rYef6WqqgiY

http://www.charlottemagazine.com/Charlotte-Magazine/September-2014/Memories-of-Brooklyn/

https://brooklynvillage-clt.com/history/

The Fire Escape at Myers Street School

The stairs that gave the school Jacobs Ladder school.

Photo Courtesy: The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Story - Charlotte Mecklenburg Library

The Brevard Street Library

The first to serve North Carolina’s black community, the library opened its doors in 1905.

Photo Courtesy: The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Story - Charlotte Mecklenburg Library

Important sites and historic buildings:

Something that is almost as important as those who make it up are the landmarks. These important places and buildings hold the memories and emotions of numerous individuals. Whether it is the first day of school, a moving sermon from the pastor, or the start of a new venture. Before the decimation of the neighborhood, Brooklyn was home to many key buildings and institutions. Let’s take a tour of what was.

Holding its first classes in 1886, the Myers Street was opened to fill the gap in public education for African Americans in the city. By 1940, the school had grown to become the largest school for blacks in the entire state and earned the nick name the Jacobs Ladder School because of a set of stairways that were added as fire escapes. Because of segregation ramping up in the early 20th century, many black families from around the county moved to the neighborhood to afford their children an education. The school remained open until 1960s, when the building was demolished to make way for “Urban Renewal.” The site where the school was is now a part of Mecklenburg Aquatic Center and the Metro School. Another school of prominence in the Brooklyn community was Second Ward High School. The high school opened up in 1923 some 40 years after Myers Street. The school was located on Alexander St. and was the first public high school for blacks in the County. Before, to get a secondary education, blacks would have to move to a different school district or go to Johnson C. Smith University.

Mecklenburg Investment Company Building:

Constructed in 1922, the Mecklenburg Investment was built by and for Charlotte’s black community. Since Jim Crow laws prevented Blacks from leasing business space in communities where they were not welcome there was a need to create a space where black entrepreneurs could thrive. Spearheaded by an investment of group of leaders in the neighborhood, the building’s purpose was to be the center of neighborhoods economic engine. The main investors included doctors, dentist, and HBCU faculty. One main investor was Dr. J.T. Williams, a person who is explored later in the episode. Over the next 80 years the Building would eventually become home to many businesses, such as Yancey’s Drug Store, doctor’s offices, a hotel, and clubs. But by the close of the Civil Rights era, integration meant an opening of commercial space to businesses of color. This caused many tenants to abandon their space at the building. If you are ever uptown, building still stands at 233 s. Brevard St.

A few other important sites that once stood in Brooklyn are

• Brevard Street Library: Built in 1905, the library was among the first to serve african americans in the county. It was built by funds from Charlotte and donations from the community.

• Grace AME Zion Church: Still standing at 219 S. Brevard St., the Gothic Revival structure was built in 1901 and was listed to the National Register of Historic Buildings in 2008.

Additional Reading:

https://www.cmstory.org/sites/default/files/images/1969%20students.jpg

https://www.cmstory.org/sites/default/files/images/JacobsLadder_0.jpg

https://www.cmstory.org/sites/default/files/images/1918SixthGrade_0.jpg

Second Ward High School National Alumni Foundation - http://www.secondwardfoundation.org/

http://digitalcollections.uncc.edu/cdm/search/searchterm/%22Brooklyn%20(Charlotte%2C%20N.C.)/order/nosort

http://www.cmhpf.org/educationneighhist2ndward.htm

http://www.cmhpf.org/educationneighhistcentercity.htm

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article57611168.html

Further Landmarks:

• Mecklenburg Investment Company Building.

• Little Rock AME Church 1st ward

• Myers street school

• Second ward high school- http://secondwardfoundation.org/homepage

• Old colored YMCA

• AME Zion publishing house -

• Grace AME Zion Church

Black Main Street: A Place of Excellence:

The political and economic disenfranchisement that blacks experienced in the US during the early 20th century, led to a push back of sorts. Increasing unwelcome in many public areas across the south, Black Main Streets began popping up in America’s urban areas. Black leaders during this time preached self-sufficiency. If they were going to be excluded from the economy, they would create one of their own. This led to pockets of businesses that catered to the needs of African Americans, and Charlotte was no exception. Business owners driven out of predominately white neighborhoods by rising rents and segregation, flooded the Brooklyn community.

People Like J.T. Williams, the son of a freed slave who ran a successful lumber business in Cumberland County, moved to Charlotte in 1882, after studying to become a teacher at what is now Fayetteville State University.  Williams was among the faculty that founded the Myers Street School, as the first public school for African American Children. After teaching for three years, Williams went on to attend Shaw University’s Leonard Medical School in Raleigh, and in 1886 he returned to Charlotte as a Doctor one of one of the first 3 black doctors licensed in the state of North Carolina.  Williams would go on to work with other important figures in the Brooklyn community to found Grace Zion AME Church and the AME Zion Publishing house. 

Additional Reading:

https://guides.library.uncc.edu/c.php?g=621704&p=4626874

http://mainstreet.lib.unc.edu/projects/bearden_charlotte/index.php/images/view/50

https://www.cmstory.org/exhibits/african-american-album-volume-2-places/s-brevard-st-400-blk

https://www.cmstory.org/exhibits/african-american-album-volume-2-places/s-brevard-st-200-300-blks

Other noticeable figures from Brooklyn’s history are:

• Kelly Alexander Jr. – A Democratic NC General Assembly member serving the 107th district. His father served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the NAACP. Senior was also a figure in Charlotte’s civil rights struggle. Kelly Alexander Jr. was Frederic Alexander’s nephew.

• Thad Tate – A business and civic leader in Charlotte, living from 1865 to 1951. He came to Charlotte in 1877 running a barber shop in Uptown. His patrons included many prominent leaders such as “Governor Cameron Morrison, the store owners William Henry Belk and J. B. Ivey, and the neighborhood builder Edward Dilworth Latta.” This proximity to city and state leaders gave Tate the opportunity to get improvements for the black community, including schools, a YMCA, and a library. He was a founding member of the Mutual Insurance Company created to focus on African Americans. He also helped build the Mecklenburg Investment Company Building.

• Sallie Phelps – A librarian at the Brevard Street Library for Negroes.

• William W. Smith – A prominent African American Architect, Smith was instrumental in what is called “Charlotte’s Negro business Renaissance.” He designed and built Graze AME Zion Church and its publishing house, Goler Hall at Livingstone College, and the Mecklenburg Investment Company building.

• Rose Learly Love – Love was a writer, and teacher who grew up in Brooklyn. Her works include “Plum Thickets and Field Daisies” which dives into the daily life of the Brooklyn neighborhood. It is a great read and I encourage you to read it. It is available for free online; link is in the show notes

Excerpt from Commission brochure

Courtesy: UNCC J. Murrey Atkins Library

Excerpt from Commission brochure

Courtesy: UNCC J. Murrey Atkins Library

Independence from above. Circa 1965

Independence Blvd (the center right corner of the first photo) and the Brooklyn neighborhood (Upper right of the image, left Independence).

Image courtesy: Gribblenation

Independence from above. Circa 1965

Independence and Uptown with surrounding neighborhoods from a different angle.

Image courtesy: Gribblenation

“Urban Renewal:”

For the next few decades, Brooklyn flourished. A mecca of Black commerce in the face of open discrimination and segregation, this area, however, would not last forever. In the 1930s, with little to no representation in government, a program was started to offer African Americans mortgages only in certain parts of Charlotte. With the allure of new housing, Brooklyn began its decades long purge. The next cut to Brooklyn’s success was the construction of a new road, Independence Boulevard. Built strategically to demolish sections of the neighborhood, the highway was part of a growing trend in urban development to segregate cities with the use of features such as freeways and other manmade landmarks. It was also built to ferry white suburbanites to their offices downtown without having to suffer the experience of driving through black neighborhoods. By 1947, decades of neglect and underdevelopment was showing its face. The federal government set aside money for “Urban Development.” Emboldened, Charlotte began to rezone the entire neighborhood as industrial even though the entire area was residential.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Planning Commission was formed in 1958 to determine if blight had occurred within Brooklyn to receive federal money. Some of the findings found in their report were that the area needed “renewal” because of ‘rude and primitive’ homes, decrepit streets, and overcrowding. North Carolina law at the time stated that a community was considered blighted if 2/3rds of housing was dilapidated. Under this definition, Brooklyn was 77% blighted. This was all the federal government needed and over 1 million dollars was allotted to clear the neighborhood. The Charlotte Redevelopment commission created a pamphlet titled the “Brooklyn Area” with one page calling the old neighborhood a “A social and economic liability in 1960” and the new neighborhood “by 1970 An Asset.” Part of the plan called for a relocation effort to move the displaced residents to newer areas, but this was not the truth. There were reports of residents being extorted, pushed out with no home to go to. With no public housing for the poorer families of Brooklyn, 90% of whom were black, there was suspicion that this was done intentionally to segregate blacks. Despite objections from the NAACP and residents the plan to raze the neighborhood moved forward.

From 1960-67, Brooklyn was demolished. In between this time, no homes were built to replenish what was lost. Over 1000 residents were left out on their own. In fact, the renewal that would replace Brooklyn was not meant to be residential. Instead it was meant to be populated by government buildings, parks, and some office buildings. It would remain that way until the 2010s.

Primary Source:

https://guides.library.uncc.edu/c.php?g=621704&p=4626874

Glancing back at History

There is a slow moving but ever-present trend sweeping across United States. Numerous communities are currently falling victim to something called gentrification. Gentrification can be summed up as the repairing and rebuilding of homes or business in a deteriorating area by more affluent people. Of course, that comes with a cost; the displacement of the community’s prior residents. This can come in different forms, and its causes aren’t always malicious. But it can still have an effect that change a community for generations and the disappearance of a community’s story.

Named after Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg, the city of now 860,000 was founded in 1768; 5 years after Mecklenburg county. Soon after, the residents of the area played a pivotal role during the American War of Independence declaring the county apart from the British crown years before America itself did. This rebellious streak played a role in giving Charlotte one of its two nicknames; the hornets nest.

I am very excited to get to explore Charlotte, North Carolina and tell the world the stories that may or may not have been forgotten.

In this series I will tell you the stories behind neighborhoods such as, Cherry, Biddleville, Brooklyn, and Belmont.

Meet the past, and current residents of the communities and explore hidden corners that not many people know today.

Over the next few months, I will bring the stories back from the rubble for the next generation.