Chambers High School is one of several new names around town. Here are the others.
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Name changes in Charlotte
Righting past wrongs and honoring civil rights heroes: Increasingly, local leaders are examining the history of Charlotte and choosing to rename some streets and buildings, including schools.
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The former Vance High School hosted a renaming ceremony Wednesday morning, marking one of many new names on Charlotte buildings and streets — with several still to come.
In a unanimous vote last fall, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board changed Vance High School’s name to honor Julius Chambers, a civil rights icon and Charlotte attorney whose work led to the desegregation of the district.
It’s one of two recently renamed CMS schools. The board of education voted in April to also rename Barringer Academic Center after Charles Parker, whose legacy has deep roots in West Charlotte.
Parker helped start churches and Plato Price School, which educated Black children in the area for 50 years. He also helped many Black families acquire land to build homes, and his family built Parker Heights Apartments, which still provides affordable housing to West Boulevard residents today.
The school was previously named for Osmond Barringer, who was a vocal supporter of a N.C. white supremacy campaign from 1898 to 1900.
Another Charlotte building shares Chambers’ name — the Derita Station Post Office was named after the local icon back in February after U.S. Rep. Alma Adams introduced a bill to start the process in 2019. It’s near Chambers’ former home off Beatties Ford Road.
A North Carolina white supremacist governor’s name and legacy was removed from the SouthPark Regional Library last October. Gov. Cameron Morrison helped lead the white supremacy campaign of 1898 that led to racist policies.
And after the protests last summer, Mayor Vi Lyles created a legacy commission that reviewed Charlotte street names and monuments. The 15-person group, composed of historians and community members, originally reviewed a list of over 70 streets with connections to slavery or white supremacy and recommended the renaming of nine.
Jefferson Davis Street and Phifer Avenue will be the first to go, while Stonewall Street will be the last. Davis was president of the Confederate States of America and Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson, for whom the street is believed to be named, a Confederate general. William Phifer was one of Charlotte’s biggest slave owners.
The renaming process has already started for Jefferson Davis Street — the Druid Hills community will continue to submit recommendations for a new name until July 18, and voting by residents will start July 26.
The results of the vote should be known in about a month, a city spokesperson said this week.
After the new name is selected, the street signs will be changed. The city will host an unveiling of the new name on Sept. 25.
A petition is gaining traction to rename Stonewall Street after Harvey Gantt, a former Charlotte mayor who is known for his legacy of advocating for equal rights.
The timeline for the renaming of all nine streets will go through June 2022.
This story was originally published July 14, 2021 at 2:46 PM.
