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African American Album 2 - Events Timeline

1963 - Martin Luther King Speaks to Charlotte's Black High School Students

May 30, 1963 - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speaks at a convocation of the area's black high schools.

Date of Event:
1963-05-30

1963 - Charlotte hotels and restaurants begin to desegregate

May 1963 - Charlotte hotels and restaurants begin to desegregate.

Date of Event:
May, 1963

1963 - Harvey Gantt Desegregates Clemson

January 16, 1963 - Harvey Gantt desegregates Clemson College. January 16, 1963

Date of Event:
January 16, 1963

1962 - Hawkins Pickets Memorial Hospital

March 1962 - Hawkins pickets Memorial Hospital.

  • In response to his earlier protests, the hospital had opened 20 beds for African Americans.
  • Dr. Hawkins states that this step is not enough to desegregate the hospital.
  • One year later, under legal pressure and threats of intervention by Attorney General Robert Kennedy, the hospital would fully desegregate.
  • Photo shows Dr. Reginald Hawkins leaving the courthouse.
Date of Event:
March, 1962

1962 - M & F Bank Opens

March 1, 1962 - M & F Bank, NC's first black run bank, opens a branch at 101 Beatties Ford Rd.

Date of Event:
March 1, 1962

1961 - Reginald Hawkins leads protest

Summer 1961 - Charlotte minister and dentist Reginald Hawkins leads protest.

Date of Event:
1961

1960 - The Demolition of Second Ward Begins

1960 - The demolition of Second Ward begins.

  • With money from the US Government, the Charlotte Redevelopment Authority begins to destroy Second Ward, the centrally-located black neighborhood of Brooklyn.
  • The city later builds new government buildings and a park on the site.
  • Most of the 1,000 black families relocate to traditionally black neighborhoods or to white working-class neighborhoods which would quickly become black.
Date of Event:
1960

1960 - "Stay" goes to the top of the charts

November 21, 1960 - "Stay" goes to the top of the charts.

  • Charlotte’s Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs record this classic hit in Columbia, SC.
  • It is later recorded by the Four Seasons, Jackson Browne, and the Hollies.
  • Earlier in his career, Williams’ song "Little Darlin’" had been performed by white quartet the Diamonds. Pop radio stations of the 1950s often air the "white" version of a song recorded by black artists.
Date of Event:
November 21, 1960

1960 - Greensboro sit-in sparks protests that spread across the South

February 1, 1960: Charlotte's Franklin McCain and three other North Carolina A & T students are refused service at the F.W. Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, NC. They begin a sit-in that spreads to eight other cities in the state, and finally, to every state in the South. 

Date of Event:
February, 1960