‘Culture, commerce and community’ come together at NAACP’s The Hub
Visitors from around the country and Charlotte enter an exhibit hall and immediately see a bright yellow standing NAACP sign coupled with vendors selling jewelry, clothes and books. Upbeat music plays ranging from Missy Elliot to Afrobeats while people disperse to concession stands, arcade games or to get a free photo taken.
The NAACP brought The Hub back to its convention at the Charlotte Convention Center Saturday as a free space open to North Carolina communities. The Hub kicked off the 116th NAACP convention Friday and will be active until Monday.
The space provides options for visitors including health and wellness, tech, sports and a career fair. On The Hub stage, visitors can catch live performances and listen to keynote speakers or panels.
On its website, the NAACP refers to The Hub as a space where culture, commerce and community converge.
Jasmine Chaney, 29, an educator in Charlotte, came to support the presentation of Black culture.
“I think (Black culture) is a particular platform that Charlotte is not fully aware of,” she said. “One of the things I’ve noticed is that, especially in the classroom, there’s not a lot of exposure to what it is that our people are capable of doing and becoming.”
Black-owned vendors
The vendors in The Hub include Black-owned businesses, services and resources. Their tables, which take up most of the exhibit hall, are lined with vibrant colors with an array of missions.
One of the first booths is for a board game named Crime Or No Crime, a game created by a family of lawyers to educate people on the law with emphasis on Black youth, who often fall victim to the system because they don’t know the law.
It is important to have a space for Black commerce because “we have to have somewhere where we can go that’s in our best interests,” said Eartha Johnson, mother of the family. “The products that we sell, they’re for us, they’re by us.”
Nikia Holmes, owner of True 9 Accessories, creates jewelry and hair accessories for brown and Black women with the goal of empowering them to be their authentic selves. The Boston native described The Hub as a family reunion and said it’s important for the Black community to see different images of themselves.
Holmes added that the convention’s theme, “The Fierce Urgency of Now,” speaks to her livelihood as a small business owner.
“It’s going to start to get harder for us entrepreneurs and these small businesses with tariffs,” she said. “So I think coming together and having the NAACP bring us all together to figure out how we thrive in this environment is very important and helpful.”
Donnie Hue Frazier III with BEAM, the Black Emotional and Mental Health Collective, said the vendors being in one space makes the products and resources accessible.
“People might not know that they have access to mental health counseling or therapists,” he said. At The Hub, “you could buy a shirt, a dress, some candles, some oils, and then you can also pick up some stuff that’s going to help your mental health.”
Free health screenings
Past a wall explaining the history of the organization’s founding in 1909 is the health and wellness zone.
Here, attendees can participate in a blood drive with the American Red Cross, get checked for high blood pressure, diabetes and sexually transmitted infections.
Kristi Mccray with Atrium Health’s Faith Community Health Ministry emphasized the importance of preventive screenings for Black people. High blood pressure and diabetes are most common in Black adults according to the The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“A lot of people don’t even get their blood pressures checked,” she said. “They don’t even feel like they are diabetic until it’s too far gone and a lot won’t come out to get tested.” She said people don’t come out because they aren’t educated about the effects or don’t have the means to get to a doctor.
The Quality Comprehension Health Center provided mental health resources, fitness demonstrations and health equity workshops. Chelsea Lamb, director of client services, said it is important to provide free STI screenings in order to address health disparities and that STIs like HIV impact Black adults at a higher rate than other demographics.
“Charlotte is an area that has a higher prevalence and incidence of STIs, including HIV and syphilis,” she said. “And so it’s important that we make an impact on our community.”
This story was originally published July 12, 2025 at 3:56 PM.
