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Article for February 2007 Issue of “The Homesteader”
New Exhibit Opening Charlotte Neighborhoods: Brooklyn to Biddleville By Pam Meister, President and CEO, The Charlotte Museum of History
Charlotte Neighborhoods: Brooklyn to Biddleville opens at The Charlotte Museum of History on February 17, 2007. The exhibit examines the history and consequences of urban renewal for two of Charlotte’s traditional African American neighborhoods. The Museum was awarded a $9190 grant from the North Carolina Humanities Council to make the project possible. The money will support the exhibit, a smaller traveling exhibit, three public forums and a bus tour of Brooklyn and Biddleville.
The exhibit component will remain at the Museum through November 10, 2007. This exhibit is the second in the Charlotte Neighborhood exhibit series, which explores local neighborhoods through their history, architecture and culture. Brooklyn to Biddleville was chosen as the next installment for the exhibit series as a result of the Museum’s involvement with the Charlotte Cultural History Partnership, which formed to address the need for preservation and documentation of Charlotte’s African-American community.
Guest curated by Dr. Robert Smith, Professor of Africana Studies at UNC Charlotte, the exhibit features two of Charlotte’s oldest African-American Neighborhoods. The Brooklyn neighborhood, which emerged downtown at the turn of the 20th century, became Charlotte’s first urban renewal project and was largely razed in the 1960s. Biddleville rose on the outskirts of downtown, and for the most part escaped the bulldozers of urban development. However, the destruction of Brooklyn impacted the development of Biddleville and other African-American neighborhoods in Charlotte.
“By exploring the histories of these two neighborhoods, we strive to inform visitors about issues and factors that can influence a community’s development, which helps them to better understand what is at stake in their own neighborhood. Understanding how the past influences the present is essential to shaping the future,” said Lee Goodan, Project Manager for the Charlotte Neighborhoods exhibit series.
The Museum and the Charlotte Cultural History Partnership are hosting three public forums and a bus tour during the run of the exhibit. Both the forums and the bus tour are free. The public is invited to the first of three forums, Community and Memory, on March 10 from 2 to 5 p.m. at the Museum. Check the Museum website www.charlottemuseum.org for updates on upcoming forums. |
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The Charlotte
Museum of History & Hezekiah Alexander Homesite |