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African American Album 2 - Places - Brooklyn

S. Myers St., 400-500 blocks

Select map to view image in greater detail.

All of these buildings were demolished. The blocks west of Myers Street became part of the Metro School complex. The blocks east of Myers Street became part of the Mecklenburg County Aquatic Center and adjacent parking lot.

Second Ward High School

In 1923, the city opened two new high schools, Central High School on Elizabeth Ave. for white students and Second Ward High School on Alexander St. for black students.

Second Ward was the first public high school for blacks in Charlotte-Mecklenburg. Before the school was built, blacks had to move to other cities to get a high school diploma or attend Johnson C. Smith University.

Myers Street School

In the late 1940s, Myers Street School was the largest elementary school in North Carolina for black children. The school was torn down as part of urban renewal. The site is now part of Metro School and the Aquatic Center.

Sweet Daddy Grace and the United House of Prayer for All People

As a young man, Charles Manuel Grace sailed by ship from West Africa and arrived in the Unites States sometime around 1903. 

He traveled throughout the eastern US and spread his gospel. During the 1920s, he visited the thriving city of Charlotte and saw an opportunity to begin a new church that would reach out to the area's growing population. 

Daddy Grace's Last Parade

Each year on the second Sunday in September, hundreds gathered in Charlotte's Brooklyn neighborhood to experience the parade honoring Bishop C. M. Grace. Sweet Daddy Grace, as he was fondly called, was the leader of the United House Of Prayer For All People, a Pentecostal denomination which grew out of the Brooklyn neighborhood.

Date of Event:

Daddy Grace's Last Parade

Each year on the second Sunday in September, hundreds gathered in Charlotte's Brooklyn neighborhood to experience the parade honoring Bishop C. M. Grace. Sweet Daddy Grace, as he was fondly called, was the leader of the United House Of Prayer For All People, a Pentecostal denomination which grew out of the Brooklyn neighborhood.

Date of Event:

Dr. E. French Tyson

Dr. E. French Tyson home, 907 S. Brevard St.

Dr. Tyson practiced medicine in Brooklyn from 1913 until the 1950s. His office was in the MIC Building on S. Brevard St.

Rose Leary Love

Rose Leary Love's childhood home on Boundary St.

Rose Leary Love grew up as part of a remarkable family on Boundary St. As an adult, she was a teacher, writer, poet, and organist. For years, she typed her memories of life in Brooklyn. In 1996, her memories were published in the book Plum Thickets and Field Daisies (Charlotte, NC: Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, 1996).