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The crowd at all-white Harding High School is angry and ready for trouble when 15-year-old Dorothy Counts arrives escorted by Dr. Edwin Thompkins, a family friend. She is greeted by an angry crowd. Even teachers at the school express their displeasure, some with words and some with silence.
On September 4, 1957 Delois Huntley becomes the first black student at the old Alexander Graham Junior High on Morehead Street. Her first day's experience is less eventful than any of the other desegregation pioneers.
When Girvaud Robers and her mother arrive at Piedmont Junior High, the students and their parents stare at them, but there is no violence.
On September 4, 1957, sixteen-year-old Gus Roberts arrives at Central High School with his father. Hundreds of students stand on the front steps, watching.
Principal Ed Sanders welcomes Gus and his father and makes sure the crowd behaves peacefully. Gus goes to class.
The first sale of a slave in Mecklenburg County is officially recorded. Prices are set in units of British currency, called pounds. The price paid for the African man is 75 pounds. Slaves are given new names by their masters. Some names, such as Joseph and Jacob, come from the Bible.
Before the Civil War began, black slaves attended church with their white masters, but sat in the balconies. Now, as slaves win their freedom they want churches of their own. The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church of Philadelphia helps start a congregation in Charlotte.
In West Africa, men, women and children are captured and forced onto ships bound for the American colonies. These people will be sold as slaves. Although the Africans have their own beliefs, language, families and culture, their owners will not care.
African American novelist Charles Waddell Chestnutt (1858-1932) leaves his home in Fayetteville and arrives in Charlotte to teach school. He is fifteen years old. Chestnutt would eventually become an assistant to the principal.
The joy of coming home can be seen on the faces of these veterans from North Carolina. Front row, left to right: Cpl. Guy R. Thornton of 2324 Chesterfield Ave., Charlotte; Cpl. Howell T. Ballard of Kannapolis; and Cpl. Robert D. Byram of 3008 Dogwood Ave., Charlotte. Standing left to right: Pvt.
