Hot Dates: A dream unraveled, Doobie Brothers, Fogerty and Kollard Kings

Has Charlotte’s dream been deferred again? Tuesday, 5-7:30 p.m., UNC Charlotte Center City Building, 320 E. Ninth St.: A community discussion about the 1971 landmark case that made Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools a national model for desegregating schools. In Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered that CMS students could be bused to achieve racial balance.

But rulings in the 1990s have unraveled much of the progress. The discussion will be anchored by former Observer reporter Frye Gaillard, whose book “The Dream Long Deferred” chronicled the events that led to that seismic ruling in 1971. Joining Gaillard will be Amy Hawn Nelson, who co-authored “Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, School Desegregation and Re-segregation in Charlotte.”

Event hosts: Dorothy Counts Scoggins, one of four African-American students who in 1957 enrolled in all-white Charlotte high schools and integrated CMS, and former Charlotte Mayor Pro Tem Betty Chafin Rash. The event is free to the public. More details, click here.

Tuesday, 7:30 p.m., The Doobie Brothers at uptown’s Belk Theater, 130 N. Tryon St.: The Grammy-winning band that emerged in northern California in the 1970s continues to be sampled on dance records, re-interpreted on “American Idol” and a fixture on classic-rock radio. Its members also continue to write and record new music and travel the world performing it. The band recently collaborated with top country stars on its new album. Details, click here.

Wednesday, 8 p.m., John Fogerty at Uptown Amphitheatre, 1000 N.C. Music Factory Blvd: With his memoir, “Fortunate Son,” slated for release in October, Fogarty revisits 1969 by playing songs from three Creedence Clearwater Revival albums – along with several of his own solo hits. Details, click here.

Thursday, 6 p.m., special fundraising event for the Charlotte Museum of History, 3500 Shamrock Drive: The museum invites guests to an evening at one of Charlotte’s most important treasures – the stone Hezekiah Alexander Home Site. Built in 1774, it’s the oldest surviving house in Mecklenburg County. Gather at the rock house for food and drink, including colonial beers, wine, hors d’oeuvres and music, as the museum celebrates its successful renaissance.

Alexander bought more than 300 acres on Sugar Creek in 1767, and built a house for his family in 1774. While working as a blacksmith and later a farmer, he served in the Fifth Provincial Congress that wrote the state’s first constitution. He was a trustee of Queens College.

Tickets for the fundraising event are $100 and reservations are required. Details, click here.

Opening Friday at a theater near you: The action comedy “Hot Pursuit,” with Reese Witherspoon as a by-the-book cop trying to protect a drug dealer’s widow (Sofia Vergara) as they’re chased across Texas by hit men and crooked cops.

Friday, 7:30 p.m., The Rob Hale Band at Great Aunt Stella Center, 926 Elizabeth Ave.: Part of the Charlotte Folk Society’s series at Great Aunt Stella on the second Friday of each month. McHale is a North Carolina-based virtuoso in folk and Americana music whose songs take you through small towns and down dirt roads. He performs solo or with his band: Brother Pat on the harmonica, Mike Alicke on guitar and mandolin, Frank Berridge on bass and Mary Hawes on percussion.

McHale performs throughout the state and the Southeast, and each month hosts the monthly Summit Coffee Songwriters Showcase in Davidson featuring local, regional and touring artists. Details, click here.

Also Friday, 7:30 p.m., Celtic Revival! at McGlohon Theater, Spirit Square, 345 N. College St.: The Sky family of Prince Edward Island does an Irish dance production with music from the Celtic, pop, rock and gospel traditions. Details: www.blumenthalarts.org.

Saturday, 1-4 p.m., Let Me Be Your Salty Dog – Charlotte’s Stringband Heyday: Tom Hanchett, historian at the Levine Museum of the New South, and The Kollard Kings oldtime string band will present a lecture on Charlotte’s stringband past and a demonstration of that music from the Kings. Event at the Charlotte Friends Meeting House, 570 Rocky River Road W. Bring your instruments for a post-lecture jam session with the Charlotte Folk Society.

The Kollard Kings specialize in old-time stringband music from Charlotte’s past as a major country music recording center in the 1930s that became the roots of bluegrass. The event is being presented by the Robinson-Spangler Carolina Room of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg public library.

This story was originally published May 4, 2015 at 2:00 AM with the headline "Hot Dates: A dream unraveled, Doobie Brothers, Fogerty and Kollard Kings."