Charlotte Mecklenburg Library

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Plum Thickets and Field Daisies

Author's Preface

MUCH OF THE Material in this book is information that was told to me by older people. Much of it is what I have remembered from my childhood experiences.
 
I have decided to write about the section of Charlotte, North Carolina, which was called Brooklyn because I think its development and the history of its colored citizenry should be recorded.
 
This area was small in land size, but the activities of its people give an intimate glimpse of life as it was centered in this segment of America many years ago.
 

Liz

LIZ—I remember her silly face, her misshapen body, her undeveloped mentality. She was such an unfortunate human being. Still, she was a part of Brooklyn’s population. She became a community landmark by constantly roaming the streets, standing for hours on street corners and attending any funeral people would let her attend.
 

Springs Alley

AFTER REACHING ADULTHOOD, one of my strangest and saddest remembrances of Brooklyn was the fact that Spring Alley, a red light district, once existed there.
 
When my mother and other homeowners came to this far out boundary of the city to buy and live in their modest homes, such a notorious section was not there. I have often asked myself these questions: Why was it planned to be in this area of colored homeowners? By whom did it come into being? I have never known the answers to my questions.
 

Superstitions

A FEW MEMBERS of Brooklyn’s population, particularly some who could be described as being up in years and a few more who had no educational training, were said to have had a rather firm belief in the power and existence of supernatural things such as hants, ghosts and conjuration.