Download

University of North Carolina Charlotte Timeline

  • Charlotte Center of the University of North Carolina founded

    Bonnie Cone founded the college to be a night school for veterans returning from active duty.
  • Renamed Charlotte College

    To better fit into educational scene around Charlotte as well as establish validity of the school.
  • Period: to

    Carver College operational as "separate but equal" institution

    Founded to be the "Black half" of Charlotte College, Carver College was operated by the Charlotte City School Board from 1949-1958, then by the Charlotte Community College System from 1957-1963, after which it was renamed Mecklenburg College and merged with the Industrial Education Center in '63 to create Central Piedmont Community College (CPCC).
  • Marian Anderson performs at commencement

    Marian Anderson was a world renowned classical music singer. She was the first African-American person to perform with the Metropolitan Opera in New York.
  • Charlotte college added to UNC System & renamed "UNC Charlotte"

  • Stokely Carmichael speaks

    Civil rights activist Stokely Carmichael was invited to campus by Students for ACTION (Active Committee for Truth, Individualism, Opportunity, Now), but Carmichael's ties to organizations like the Black Panther Party made the choice to bring him to campus as a speaker a controversial one. Rumors surfaced that white guests would be barred from attending the speech, but VCSA Bonnie Cone intervened, diffusing a tense situation. link text
  • Black Studies Committee plans for the fall

    Members of the Black Studies Committee met throughout the end of the spring semester in 1969 as well as through the whole summer to plan for the reveal of the Black Studies program.
  • Orangeburg Vigil

    Students held a vigil for the victims on the eve of the first anniversary of what became known as the “Orangeburg Massacre.”
  • UNC Charlotte refuses to acknowledge Black student deaths

    UNC Charlotte refuses to acknowledge Black student deaths
    A group of Black students wrote to the chancellor to request he follow up on his promise to replace the Black flag back on the flag pole and fly it at half mast to honor 3 Black students were were killed in Orangeburg, SC on 02/09/1969.
  • Admin responds poorly to demands by Black students

    Admin responds poorly to demands by Black students
    Instead of receiving the demands with grace and benefit of the doubt, Bonnie Cone, then-Vice Chancellor to Chancellor Colvard, chose to annotate the 10 demands with how they would not work.
  • Black Students respond to Bonnie Cone

    Black Students respond to Bonnie Cone
    The Black Student Caucus wrote to Bonnie Cone about her response to the 10 demands they had sent in days before.
  • Written Documentation of Protest on 2/28/69

    In response to administration dodging requests for a Black student union and being purposefully secretive and abstruse, Black students gathered "around the flag pole" and were harassed by police.
  • A citizen responds to March 3 protest

    A citizen responds to March 3 protest
  • Colvard responds to Ben Chavis

    Colvard responds to Ben Chavis
    Colvard wrote a letter to Ben Chavis, prominent social activist and student at UNC Charlotte, discussing and essentially rejecting the 10 demands submitted by the Black Student Caucus.
  • Planning Committee for Black Studies Program formed

    Planning Committee for Black Studies Program formed
    Seemingly in response to increasing pressure from Black students and embarrassment at his handling of previous encounters, Chancellor Colvard sends out a memorandum to 17 faculty members and students to request they serve "as members of a Black Student Committee in order to study and make recommendations for a program of Black Studies at UNC-Charlotte."
  • John Belk 1966-1977 Mayor and benefactor of Charlotte

    John Belk 1966-1977 Mayor and benefactor of Charlotte
    Belk's influence on growth, infrastructure and UNC Charlotte from 2 year educational institute to 4 year intitute. Belk was also was very instrumental in the expansion of Charlotte’s airport as an international hub, enabling the city to become a major financial, transportation and distribution centerDouglas international and John Belk Freeway.
    Expansion video https://youtu.be/M9XHZlX7y6E
  • West Charlotte Senior High (Lions)

    West Charlotte Senior High (Lions)
    Fall of 1970 Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools bus students in efforts to desegregate Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools according to Judge McMillan's decision in Swann v Mecklenburg. GRUNDY, P. (2017). Color and Character: West Charlotte High and the American Struggle over Educational Equality. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Retrieved March 1, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5149/9781469634012_grundy
  • Julius Chambers

    Julius Chambers
    Swann v Mecklenburg Board of Education 1964- 1975
    Julius Chambers represents the Swann familiy and is successful which led to desegregation of Charlotte Mecklenburg schools by busing. Resentment is evidenced by the threat letters and multiple bombings of Chamber's office, home and car. Additionally the resentment is seen throughout the country as a threat to security of the status quo
  • The Charlotte Three Thomas James (T.J) Reedy

    The Charlotte Three Thomas James (T.J) Reedy
    Wicker, Tom. "Law And Vengance on Charlotte Three." Daytona Beach Morning Journal. Dec 28, 1974. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Kk0fAAAAIBAJ&sjid=itEEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3665%2C4099626 (accessed February 12, 2021).
    https://www.cmstory.org/exhibits/african-american-album-volume-2/1972-charlotte-three-convicted
    Attorney James Ferguson
  • UNCC Black Studies Program and Instructor Bertha Maxwell- Roddey

    UNCC Black Studies Program and Instructor Bertha Maxwell- Roddey
    Bertha Maxwell Roddey becomes UNCC's Black Studies Program’s founding director in 1971.
    Scholarship, Research, Activism: A brief history of UNC Charlotte's Africana Studies Department: Inside UNC Charlotte: UNC Charlotte. Inside UNC Charlotte. (2021, February 22). https://inside.uncc.edu/news-features/2021-02-08/scholarship-research-activism-brief-history-unc-charlotte%E2%80%99s-africana.
  • Bertha Maxwell hired

    Maxwell (now Maxwell-Roddey) became UNC Charlotte's first Black administrator and a pioneering voice for the Black Studies Program after serving as one of the first Black principals to head a white elementary school in Charlotte.
  • Mary T. Harper hired

    Harper joined UNC Charlotte as the first Black full-time faculty member in UNC Charlotte’s English Department in 1971, after teaching at Newbold High School in Lincolnton, North Carolina, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, Barber-Scotia College and Johnson C. Smith University. She passed away on Oct. 1, 2020. (via https://inside.uncc.edu/news-features/2020-10-06/university-remembers-lasting-legacy-mary-harper).
  • 1974 Afro-American Cultural Center in Charlotte( Harvey Gantt Center)

    1974 Afro-American Cultural Center in Charlotte( Harvey Gantt Center)
    Maxwell and English professor Mary Harper co-found the Afro-American Cultural Center in Charlotte to offset some of the negative effects of desegregation and the destruction of Black neighborhoods due to urban renewal. Roberson, L. (2020, October 9). University remembers lasting legacy of Mary Harper: INSIDE Unc Charlotte: UNC Charlotte. https://inside.uncc.edu/news-features/2020-10-06/university-remembers-lasting-legacy-mary-harper.
  • Busing Integration

    Busing Integration
    In 11/1974 Students from Boston Schools visit West Charlotte to meet with studets in efforts of understanding the impacts of intergration.
    GRUNDY, P. (2017). BUSING. In Color and Character: West Charlotte High and the American Struggle over Educational Equality (p.80).
    White students and parents riot as black students are bused into Mars, Boston school.
    https://www.nytimes.com/1974/09/13/archives/violence-mars-busing-in-boston-mayor-restricts-gatherings-to.html?searchResultPosition=2
  • Mostly families of color displaced by Interstate Highway I-277

    Mostly families of color displaced by Interstate Highway I-277
    Urban redevelopment results in an overwhelming loss of black culture i.e, schools, churches, and neighborhoods of African Americans in Charlotte. African American instructors are impacted by closure of schools.
    GRUNDY, P. (2017). BUSING. In Color and Character: West Charlotte High and the American Struggle over Educational Equality (pp. 59-82). Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Retrieved March 1, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5149/9781469634012_grundy.7
  • 1980 Wilmington 10 decission overturned by US Court of Appeals

    1980 Wilmington 10 decission overturned by US Court of Appeals
    February 6, 1971, Mike’s Grocery, in Wilmington, was firebombed (increasing racial tension and violence over the desegregation of the city’s high schools)
    -prosecutor secured guilty verdicts by using perjured testimony and illegally excluding blacks from the jury. The Wilmington 10 and Firebombing of Mike's Grocery. NC DNCR. (2016, February 6). https://www.ncdcr.gov/blog/2015/02/06/the-wilmington-10-and-firebombing-of-mikes-grocery.
  • Establishment of district representation on City Council in 1977 for adequate representation of the Westside on City Council

    Establishment of district representation on City Council in 1977 for adequate representation of the Westside on City Council
    https://www.charlottemagazine.com/district-representation-enters-local-politics/
    Sam Smith insisted that Charlotte's Westside was the "stepchild"
    A transformation of Charlotte politics occurred on April 19, 1977. That's when the voters approved by the narrowest of margins district representation on the Charlotte City Council.
    https://www.cmstory.org/exhibits/african-american-album-volume-2/1977-charlottes-new-district-system
    October 11, 1976,vetoed by John Belk
  • Kelly Alexander Honored by NAACP.

    Kelly Alexander Honored by NAACP.
    Alexander revived the Chalotte Section NAACP as a Civil Rights Activst in Charlotte, leading by example and for African Americans until his death.
    https://www.cmstory.org/exhibits/african-american-album-volume-2/kelly-alexander-sr-honored-naacp
  • Job Training Partnership Act of 1982

    Job Training Partnership Act of 1982
    JTPA Programs increase work readiness and employment experience of impoverished in Charlotte.
    Mellnik, T. (1986, January 9). CHARLOTTE OFFICIALS BOOST ADVERTISING ON JOBS PROGRAM FOR
    DISADVANTAGED. Charlotte Observer, The (NC), p. 9B. Available from NewsBank: America's News – Historical
    and Current: https://infoweb-newsbank-com.proxy141.nclive.org/apps/news/document-view?
    p=AMNEWS&docref=news/0EB6BFF39AF61ED3. https://goldmine.uncc.edu/index/render/object/pid/mss:69822/parentPID
  • Opening-afro-american-cultural-center

    Opening-afro-american-cultural-center
    Little Rock AME Zion Church 1912-1981
    Historical Building sold by Little Rock AME Zion Church ( 2nd Ward/ Brooklyn) during redevelopment after sale of deed to the city during urban development phase.
    https://inside.uncc.edu/news-features/2020-10-06/university-remembers-lasting-legacy-mary-harper
    Our History. Little Rock A.M.E. Zion Church.(2020). https://littlerockamezion.org/our-history.
    https://www.cmstory.org/exhibits/african-american-album-volume-2/1986-opening-afro-american-cultural-center
  • The Deadliest Year in Charlotte Lights for Justice

    The Deadliest Year in Charlotte Lights for Justice
    Officers Burnette and Nobles known for Community Policing make a difference for West Charlotte community and Boulevard Homes.
    https://www.charlottemagazine.com/1993-charlottes-deadliest-year/
    Dee Sumpter founds Mother of Murdered Offspring (Henry Wallace)
    https://www.cmstory.org/exhibits/african-american-album-volume-2/1993-dee-sumpter-founds-mothers-murdered-offspring
    https://www.cmstory.org/exhibits/african-american-album-volume-2/1993-light-justice-candlelight-vigil
  • The Million Man March

    The Million Man March
    400,000 - 1.1 million African American men, fathers, and attendees gatheres at the nation's capital in an effort to bring awareness of experiences of African American communities.
    https://www.cmstory.org/exhibits/african-american-album-volume-2/1995-million-man-march
  • Diversity is the Future of UNCC

    Craig Fulton Director of Admissions
    Incusion, community, growth and diversity
    https://goldmine.uncc.edu/index/render/object/pid/ua:1422/parentPID/ua:publrel Faculty Demographics
    -numbers and diversty of faculty speak diferrently on divesity and shown a need for growth and representation of students that can reflected by the faculty.
    Faculty 1996:
    Asian F-2, M- 11, AA F-5, M-3, Hispanic F,1 ,M-1,
    White F-39, M-138 total faculty of 200
  • 1995/1996 Report: #of Black Men/Women Faculty

    1995/1996 Report: #of Black Men/Women Faculty
    Female Lecturers: 4
    Male Lecturers: 1 Female Asst. Profs.: 7
    Male Asst. Profs.: 4 Female Assoc. Profes.: 5
    Male Assoc. Profes.: 3 Female Professors: 1
    Male Professors: 2 Total Black Female Faculty: 17
    Total Black Male Faculty: 10
    Total White Faculty:554
    Total
  • UNCC Staking its claim in the UNC School System

    "In August 2000 the Board of Governors of the University of North Carolina System reclassified it a doctoral/research university.
    The modern University of North Carolina at Charlotte is comprised of seven colleges. It draws students from across North Carolina and the nation and around the world. In the early 2000s it had an enrollment of more than 18,000 students. "
  • Product of Gentrification: Price Spike from 2000-2010

    Product of Gentrification: Price Spike from 2000-2010
    Transformation of neighborhoods west of Third Ward. The area is near Bryant Park that was primarily inhabited by Black families until they were displaced " as median home values nearly doubled in that same time span, jumping from $90,984 in 2000 to $171,900 in 2010." https://patch.com/north-carolina/charlotte/gentrification-charlotte-see-areas-most-affected
  • UNC Charlotte Magazine Q3, 2008

    UNC Charlotte Magazine Q3, 2008
    Spike in campus construction to sustain growing population. Some examples of campus expansion plans include a $65 Million exterior work on the Popp Martin Student Union as well as a $35 Million Bioinformatics building.
    https://issuu.com/unc_charlotte/docs/uncc_3q08?fr=sODZiYTI1MTE4Nw
  • UNC Charlotte Creates Master Plan

    As the growth of enrollment in students and the projected growth of the city of Charlotte increases, UNC Charlotte set out to create a master plan for growth trajectory. "The 2010 Master Plan presents a cohesive, people-oriented campus committed to sustainability, efficiency, and social interaction. It also presents a stronger set of building and infrastructure connections to our surrounding neighbors."
  • UNC Charlotte Urban Institute: Disparity in Incarceration Rate

    Black men in Charlotte are 9.6 times more likely to be incarcerated than white males in the city. Black male incarceration rate: 4.8%
    White male incarceration rate: .5%
  • 2012 Enrolled Students Racial Breakdown

    White Students: 15,943
    Black Students: 4,309
  • UNC Charlotte Urban Institute: Racial Wealth Gap

    UNC Charlotte Urban Institute: Racial Wealth Gap
    Black and Latinx households are twice are more than twice as likely to be asset poor ie. lack of sufficient savings or assets that can be utilized to purchase basic needs. Black Households: 44%
    Latinx Households: 48%
    White Households: 18%
  • Students "Die in" at the Popp Martin Student Union

    Students "Die in" at the Popp Martin Student Union
    UNC-Charlotte students staged a peaceful lie in protest over the Charlotte police officer shooting.
    https://www.wxii12.com/article/unc-charlotte-students-hold-lie-in-protest/3618777
  • 2017 Enrolled Student Racial Diversity Breakdown

    White Students: 16,380
    Black Students: 4,630
    Hispanic/Latinx: 2,584
  • UNC Charlotte Urban Institute: Educational Debt Disparity

    Nonwhite students accumulate more debt than white students in Mecklenburg county as well as in Student Loan debt collections twice the rate as white students. Student Loan Debt of Nonwhite: 21%
    Student Loan Debt of White: 17% Student Loan Debt in Collections of Nonwhite:16%
    Student Loan Debt in Collections of White: 8%
  • Reported Jump in "Ethnic Student Enrollment"

    Reported Jump in "Ethnic Student Enrollment"
    According to UNCC's 2019 progress report, "..... Since
    our summary report in 2013, the percentages of Asian, Hispanic, Latino, multiracial and international students have increased, while the percentage of students identifying as White (55.7%) has declined. Black/African American enrollment (16.2%) is unchanged"
  • City of Charlotte Race Distribution circa 2019

    City of Charlotte Race Distribution circa 2019
    Charlotte Racial Breakdown according to the most recent U.S Census White: 48.8%
    Black: 35.2%
    Hispanic/Latinx: 14.3%
  • 2019/2020 Report of # Black Men/Women Faculty

    2019/2020 Report of # Black Men/Women Faculty
    Female Lecturers: 10
    Male Lecturers: 4 Female Asst. Profes.: 22
    Male Asst. Profes.: 8 Female Assoc. Profes.: 19
    Male Assoc. Profes.: 9 Female Professors: 6
    Male Professors: 9 Total Black Female Faculty: 57
    Total Black Male Faculty: 30
    Total White Faculty: 777