This was a largely African American neighborhood which emerged in uptown
Charlotte, North Carolina at the turn of the 20th century. According to
former Brooklyn visitor Mr. James Ross, it housed a thriving
community complete with "two movie theaters, a library, two funeral homes, two
colleges, a high school, an elementary school, probably six night clubs,
probably twenty restaurants, an Elks Club, a YMCA, a YWCA, two commercial
laundries, a commercial icehouse, twenty three churches big enough for people to
remember and probably another ten little store front churches, a pharmacy,
doctors, dentists, two newspapers, now this was one neighborhood." Named
after its sister city in New York, "Brooklyn" conveyed the sense of a city
within a city, one with an equally vibrant nightlife and
community-spirit. The decline of this community began in the late
1930s when federal guidelines red-lined African American communities and the
all-white Charlotte Planning Commission re-zoned Brooklyn in 1947 as an
industrial zone. Difficulty in obtaining property loans and re-zoning
discouraged capital investment and precipitated Brooklyn's economic
decline. By the 1960s Brooklyn's growing impoverishment as well as its
prime location in uptown led Charlotte's Redevelopment Authority to target
Brooklyn as its first urban renewal project. Between 1960 and 1977, over
1000 families, 200 businesses, and numerous social institutions of this
African-American neighborhood were removed or destroyed. In its place came new
government buildings, a city park, thoroughfares, and private office space in
what is now known as Second Ward. No new residential or commercial
structures were built to replace those that had been bulldozed, leaving
residents and businesses of the former Brooklyn community to find new
accommodations elsewhere.
Charlotte, North Carolina at the turn of the 20th century. According to
former Brooklyn visitor Mr. James Ross, it housed a thriving
community complete with "two movie theaters, a library, two funeral homes, two
colleges, a high school, an elementary school, probably six night clubs,
probably twenty restaurants, an Elks Club, a YMCA, a YWCA, two commercial
laundries, a commercial icehouse, twenty three churches big enough for people to
remember and probably another ten little store front churches, a pharmacy,
doctors, dentists, two newspapers, now this was one neighborhood." Named
after its sister city in New York, "Brooklyn" conveyed the sense of a city
within a city, one with an equally vibrant nightlife and
community-spirit. The decline of this community began in the late
1930s when federal guidelines red-lined African American communities and the
all-white Charlotte Planning Commission re-zoned Brooklyn in 1947 as an
industrial zone. Difficulty in obtaining property loans and re-zoning
discouraged capital investment and precipitated Brooklyn's economic
decline. By the 1960s Brooklyn's growing impoverishment as well as its
prime location in uptown led Charlotte's Redevelopment Authority to target
Brooklyn as its first urban renewal project. Between 1960 and 1977, over
1000 families, 200 businesses, and numerous social institutions of this
African-American neighborhood were removed or destroyed. In its place came new
government buildings, a city park, thoroughfares, and private office space in
what is now known as Second Ward. No new residential or commercial
structures were built to replace those that had been bulldozed, leaving
residents and businesses of the former Brooklyn community to find new
accommodations elsewhere.