Allegra Westbrooks comes to head the Negro Library Services for the Public Library. She becomes well-known as a career woman within the broader Charlotte professional community.
The Queen City Classic football game becomes an annual contest between the two black high schools, Second Ward and West Charlotte.
Held each year at Charlotte's Memorial Stadium, the game raises money to benefit the athletic programs at the schools. The last game will be held in 1968, one year before Second Ward High School is closed.
Vermelle Diamond is crowned the first Miss Queen City Classic in 1948. She is flanked by J.E. Grigsby, principal of Second Ward and C.L. Blake, principal of West Charlotte.
In 1947, the Charlotte Planning Commission begins the first comprehensive zoning plans for the city. Although white neighborhoods remain residential areas, black neighborhoods become industrial areas.
Businesses and industries are allowed to move into Second Ward and other black sections of the city. This makes houses more difficult to sell and encourages the flight of African Americans to the northwest part of the city.
Negro officers get “full status” in Police Dept: 1947.
Charlotte's first "full status" black police officers on the steps of the Charlotte Police Department.
From left to right, front row: Roy Booton, Vardry Spencer, George T. Nash, Jr., and James Taylor. Back row: John Lyles, James Ross, A.M. Houston, and John Hoffman.
By law, Charlotte's city hospitals could only serve whites. From 1881 the Good Samaritan Hospital served the African American community. It was the first hospital in North Carolina built for blacks. Both white and black physicians admitted patients.
Good Samaritan Hospital. By law, black doctors can only practice at all-black hospitals such as Good Samaritan Hospital.