Charlotte Mecklenburg Library

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1973 - Long Ride Home

Many Charlotte-Mecklenburg students must endure long bus rides to faraway schools. Even people who support busing to achieve integration are frustrated. Slowly, blacks and whites begin to talk to each other constructively and ask questions. What does or doesn't work? What are our similarities? What can we change? What is fair?

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1957 - The Right to Vote

August 29, 1957 - President Eisenhower signs the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits interfering with any American's right to vote. But not everyone supports the law that ultimately empowers blacks. South Carolina's Senator Strom Thurmond speaks against the Civil Rights Act for a record-breaking 24 hours!

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August 29, 1957

1959 - Bishop Daddy Grace

September 13, 1959  - Thousands of worshipers from the eastern U.S. take to the streets as the Daddy Grace parade makes its way through Charlotte's largest black neighborhood, Second Ward. Always held on the second Sunday in September, the parade honors Bishop C.M. Sweet Daddy Grace, the founder of the United House of Prayer for All People. Many believers find salvation and come forward at the church's mass baptisms. 

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1961 - Struggle for Equality

May 8, 1961 - The Freedom Riders are a group of civil rights workers traveling the South to challenge the system that separate people according to race, called segregation. In Charlotte, a black Freedom Rider named Joe Perkins tries to get for a shoe-shine from the bus station's white only barber shop. Perkins is jailed! This is only the first of numerous arrests the Freedom Riders will endure in their quest

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1957 - Children Lead

September 4, 1957  - Today, four brave, young black people will test the new laws against school segregation. As the nation watches, these desegregation pioneers arrive at four of Charlotte's all-white schools. The crowds who have gathered are angry. In the tense days that follow, people throw things at Dorothy Counts. They call Gus Roberts names. They shun Delois Huntley and Gus Roberts' little sister, Girvaud. Of the four, only Gus Roberts will stay long enough to graduate. 

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September 4, 1957

1888 - First Black Hospital

Good Samaritan Hospital is aptly named. It is reported to be the first hospital in the U.S. for black patients. Mrs. Jane Wilkes, a nurse whose husband, Captain John Wilkes ran Mecklenburg Iron Works, heads the hospital's fund-raising efforts. Hundreds of miles away in New York, Mrs. Wilkes' relatives donate money to the Charlotte facility. They, too, are Good Samaritans.Good Samaritan Hospital

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1918 - Chaplin Pushes Bonds

April 11, 1918 - Film star Charlie Chaplin visits Charlotte to promote the sale of bonds that raise money for the war effort. He speaks for 10 minutes and raises over $20,000. Chaplin also entertains troops at Camp Greene, on Charlotte's west side.

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1936 - Charlotte's First Airport

Mayor Ben Douglas' dream has come true. West of the city, Charlotte's airport opens. Fifty years later, Charlotte Douglas International Airport will grow into a hub that handles 500 flights each day and millions of passengers each year.Douglas Municipal Airport

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1903 - First Free Library

<p>January 31, 1903 - Since 1891, Charlotte&#39;s library has charged a subscription fee of 50 cents per month. Today, the city&#39;s first free library opens. Northern steel executive Andrew Carnegie has given Charlotte $25,000 to start the library. The city must promise to provide $2,500 each year to operate it. Carnegie also donates money for a separate library designated for black patrons. When a tax dispute arises in 1939, the Charlotte Public Library will be forced to close for one year.

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1913 - Railroad Expansion

The network of railroad lines serving Charlotte grows as the Norfolk and Southern Railroad reaches from Virginia to the Queen City by way of Raleigh and Albemarle. Like spokes of a wheel, rail lines expand in eight directions from Charlotte. Passengers, freight and goods travel farther than ever before.

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