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Hotel Alexander:
Late 40s, on McDowell St in Charlotte.
Only hotel for blacks between Washington and Atlanta.
Douglas Municipal Airport opens: July 10, 1954.
At the new Douglas Municipal Airport, Pastors Calhoun, Wertz, Hawkins, Givens, Martin Luther King, Jr., Kelly Alexander, Sr., Pastors Kerry, Humphrey, Shipman, and an unknown person are departing for the National Baptist Convention.
West Charlotte moves: 1954
West Charlotte High School moves to from Beatties Ford Road to Senior Drive.
Band Director John Holloway conducts the Marching Lions in front of the new school.
According to the 1950 Census figures, Charlotte becomes one of the most residentially segregated cities in the US.
Fall 1954
West Charlotte High School football team wins its first state championship, defeating Kinston in the 3A Conference.
Coach Jack Martin celebrates with his players after the game.
September 11, 1955. The new Ovens Auditorium and Charlotte Coliseum (later called Independence Arena) open.
Interstate buses desegregated: January 5, 1956.
Wilbert Martin, a bus porter, holds old signs and looks at the new sign at the Charlotte bus station.
Although buses that travel between states are now desegregated, segregation is still the law for in-state travel.
September 4, 1957: Three years after the US Supreme Court decision in favor of desegregation, four courageous young people change Charlotte forever when they become the first black students to enroll in all-white schools.
1957 - KKK pickets Charlotte's Visualite Theater for showing “Island in the Sun.”
November 10, 1957 - Charlie Sifford becomes the first black member of the PGA tour.
February 15, 1958 - KKK members are arrested on their way to bomb a Charlotte school.
May 18, 1959 - Wilbert Harrison's "Kansas City" is number one on the pop charts.
September 1959 - Bishop C.M. "Daddy" Grace visits Charlotte.
December 31, 1959 - Charlotte city limits are greatly expanded and the city's population passes 200,000.
January 1960 - Charlotte's city and county schools are combined into a single large district, becoming one of the largest in the nation.