Manuscript and Archival Collections

Public papers of a Charlotte politician and civil rights leader. Primarily material created and received by Alexander as the first African-American member of the Charlotte City Council in the 20th Century (1965-74) and as a North Carolina state senator (1975-80). Includes minutes and other papers related to council and senate activities; material on campaigns and voter registration drives; files on the local, state, and national Democratic Party; correspondence; speeches; clippings; photographs; and some personal and business material.

This collection contains materials from the Alexander Family and the Alexander Funeral Home. Alexander Family Material contains documents generated by the patriarch of the family, Zechariah Alexander, primarily in his duties as an officer in the Free Masons and the Shriners organizations. The Alexander Funeral Home subseries contains documents dealing with the operation of the Alexander Funeral Home, currently the oldest continuously operating African-American owned funeral business in the city of Charlotte.

The collection consists of papers generated primarily by Kelly M. Alexander, junior, as a result of his work with the NAACP at the local, state levels and national levels. Other papers in this collection were generated by Mrs. Margaret Alexander (widow of Kelly M. Alexander, senior), and Alfred Alexander (Kelly junior's brother) in his capacity as president of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Chapter of the NAACP.

Papers documenting Alexander's service with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, including the Charlotte branch, his presidency of the North Carolina State Conference of Branches, and his membership on and chairing of the national board of directors. Includes minutes, correspondence, reports, speeches, programs, news releases, membership records, documentation on NAACP-initiated court cases, and material on voter education projects. Also includes material on the 1965 bombing of his home, the Charlotte Area Fund, health care, school desegregation, and housing.

Papers of William Tasse Alexander and his descendants in the Mallard Creek area of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. Consists primarily of records relating to the operation of the family plantation, including deeds and other legal papers, financial accounts, and information on cotton production and slaves. Also includes correspondence, an 1882 school register, genealogical material, clippings, photographs, and early twentieth century postcards of Charlotte.

Bill-of-sale of enslaved man "Loney" from J. A. Bisaner of Lincolnton, N.C. to N.A. Wingate of Charlotte, N.C. dated January 2, 1865, for $6000.00.

Materials relating to Carver College, which was operated by the Charlotte City School Board (1949-58) and the Charlotte Community College System (1958-63) as the predominately black counterpart of predominately white Charlotte College. Contains catalogs, annual reports, curriculum proposals, planning documents, and building plans.

Julius Chambers was an African-American civil rights attorney. The collection consists of files related to his firm's representation of Darius and Vera Swann and other plaintiffs in the landmark case, Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that federal courts were constitutionally authorized to exercise broad powers to oversee and produce solutions to achieve school integration.

Records of a multi-service, non-profit agency, organized in 1978 to promote economic self-sufficiency among African American families and to seek racial inclusion in Mecklenburg County (N.C.) communities. Contains miscellaneous records of the Urban League for the year 1981 only, including membership reports and lists, financial reports, and an affiliate assessment report.

The inception of Charlotte's Black Gay Pride event began in 2002. Charlotte NC Black Gay Pride (CNCBGP) became Charlotte Black Gay Pride (CBGP) in August of 2008 with 501C3 non-profit status. Collected materials from Charlotte Black Gay Pride, circa 2013. Included are a timeline of Charlotte Black Gay Pride events dating from 2002 to the present, 1 polo shirt with the Charlotte Black Gay Pride logo, and 1 poster from the 2013 Charlotte Black Gay Pride parade.

Papers of an African-American artist and minister of Charlotte's Clinton Metropolitan AME Zion Church during the 1930s. Includes correspondence and clippings, primarily relating to his attempts to gain recognition as an artist and arranging lectures and exhibits; reports on his lecture tours; the manuscript of and material relating to his book A Portrayal of Negro Life (1936); photographs; and financial information on AME Zion churches in the Charlotte District (1938-39).

Two "Cirkut Collages" of Southern cotton fields by photographer, J. C. Coovert.

Typed transcriptions of the diaries of John Hamilton Cornish, an Episcopal minister in Aiken, South Carolina, from 1833 to 1877.

Thereasa Delerine (T.D.) Elder is active in community nursing, church work, and the Charlotte African American community, particularly in efforts to preserve Charlotte's African American history. Materials document the importance of African Americans in politics and community, the value of a healthy and safe neighborhood, and access of education and employment.

Comprised exclusively of Gantt's official files as the first African-American mayor of Charlotte (1983-87). Includes correspondence, reports, and speeches on such topics as the controversy over a site for the new coliseum, Charlotte's bid for an NBA franchise, and traffic congestion. Contains no records documenting his earlier city council tenure, his 1990 U.S. Senate campaign, or his professional career as an architect.

Items relating to UNC Charlotte course project by Eunice F. Hargett for History of African-American Women, taught by Professor Wanda Hendricks during spring semester, 1992.

Papers of a Charlotte dentist, minister, and civil rights activist, who was the first African-American to run for governor of North Carolina. Consists chiefly of clippings and correspondence documenting his involvement in the desegregation of schools, public accommodations, hospitals, the North Carolina Dental Society, and the Shrine Bowl. Also includes information on voter registration projects, gubernatorial campaign files (1968 and 1972), material concerning Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The collection contains a wide variety of materials, including a slave bill-of-sale, letters, land conveyancing papers for land for the Andrew Jackson historic site, DAR papers for the Mecklenburg Chapter, and obituaries for Henderson family members.

Letter to J. Thompson Brown, English professor at Winthrop College, from Dubose Heyward (1885-1940), thanking him for his comments on Porgy and Bess.

Papers of a winner of the Juvenile Literature Award presented annually by the North Carolina American Association of University Women. Includes correspondence with publisher relating to Tancy (1984) and the manuscript and galleys of The Nightwalker (1989).

This collection contains the papers and photographs of the Leary-Love family of Charlotte, North Carolina, and Sao Paulo, Brazil; and includes primarily the papers of Rose Leary Love and her son, George Leary Love. For the most part, these papers begin in the early twentieth century (around the 1920s), and end in 1996. This collection includes a wide array of materials, including papers, sound recordings, print photographs, tintypes, slides, transparencies, negatives (in strips, sheets and oversize sheets), posters, compact discs, and even X-rays.

Papers of the founder of the Excelsior Club, the most influential social club for African Americans in Charlotte, NC, from its establishment in 1944 to its sale forty years later. Includes photographs, advertising material, programs, and booklets relating to “Genial Gene” Potts, a radio personality and disc jockey for WGIV.

Collection contains the papers of Charles A. McLean, primarily during his work as an officer of the North Carolina NAACP. Other papers were produced as a result of his business activities or by his family.

This collection contains information concerning organizations dedicated to home-making and home economics in North Carolina and in Mecklenburg County. The home economics movement was a phenomenon of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, and its purpose was to provide services and information to home-makers (primarily in rural areas) to help them manage their households more cost-effectively.

The North Carolina School Desegregation Papers is a small collection of mostly published material, generated by the faction that was opposed to the racial desegregation of public schools.

Papers of the Patterson family of northern Mecklenburg County, mainly concerning their business activities, real estate purchases, wills, and family correspondence. Also includes papers from several related families, especially their Cumming, Hodges, Potts, and Sloan connections.

Small collection from a line of families in the early twentieth century; all from the Steele Creek Township in southwestern Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. The papers include documentation concerning real estate transactions, receipts for taxes and consumer goods, promissory notes, letters to and from various family members, and documentation concerning slaves.

Papers of a Charlotte artist, poet, civil rights activist, and UNC Charlotte alumnus, highlighting his role as one of the Charlotte Three and his interest in the civil rights movement. Consists primarily of correspondence, legal documents, and other material concerning his controversial arrest, trial and conviction for arson; subsequent legal proceedings; and the activities of the North Carolina Political Prisoners' Committee.

Josephine C. Price Sherrill was the youngest daughter of Joseph C. Price, founder of Livingstone College in Salisbury, NC. Collection includes, 3 tintypes, 2 carte de visites, and 5 photo postcards belonging to Joseph C. Price family, as well as 2 photograph albums featuring the lives of Joseph C. Price's children while in school and their travels.

Collection consists of research materials compiled by Dr. Robert Samuel Smith for his 2008 book, Race, Labor, and Civil Rights: Griggs v. Duke Power and the Struggle for Equal Employment Opportunity. Materials include court documents, archival research materials, secondary works and more

This collection includes papers of Gerson Stroud, an educator and principal in the public school system in Charlotte, NC, in the second half of the twentieth century. His papers reflect his personal life and career in education, including his attention to assisting African-American youth.

The collection contains records generated by the Swank Social Club—a club of African-American men in Charlotte, NC, beginning in 1934. These records include its constitutions and bylaws, correspondence, records about its anniversaries, members, social events, minutes of meetings, financial records, newspaper clippings, memorials of deceased members, and more.

The Taylor and Richardson families album contains photographs and other materials that document the life of Charles Samuel Lafayette Alexander Taylor, an African American barber, soldier, and firefighter active in numerous social and political causes in Charlotte, North Carolina, and his family. The album contains photographs of Taylor; Ella Louise Pickens Taylor, his second wife, and other relatives and family connections.

Papers, photographs, newspaper clippings, radio broadcast transcripts and sound recordings of Dr. Joseph Samuel Nathaniel Tross, a minister in the AME Zion Church, editor of the Charlotte Post, and civil rights leader in Charlotte, NC from the 1930s until his death in 1971.

Papers of a Charlotte attorney relating to his defense of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Board of Education in the landmark case, Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education. Consists primarily of legal documentation of proceedings and briefs prepared by defendants and plaintiffs for presentation to the U.S. District Court for Western North Carolina, the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Declassified documents copied from Federal Bureau of Investigation records regarding Robert Franklin Williams, a civil rights leader and black revolutionary from Monroe, North Carolina. All records in the collection were acquired through the FBI under the Freedom of Information Act (United States Code, Section 552).

Papers of a Charlotte attorney relating to her successful representation of the plantiff in Gingles v. Edmisten, in which the US Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the state of North Carolina illegally weakened the voting power of African-Americans in state house elections in Mecklenburg and five other legislative districts. Includes pleadings, briefs, transcripts of court proceedings, depositions and affidavits of witnesses, exhibits, research material and notes, maps, correspondence, statistics, and files on related cases.

Contains a wide assortment of papers, reports and records accumulated by Louise Woods, while serving as the representative from the fourth district on the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, in Charlotte, North Carolina, from 1995-2005.