In a city that markets itself as progressive and polished, there are still rooms where the real story of Charlotte is told without branding, buffering, or applause cues.

Why it matters: If you want to understand Black Charlotte — its schools, its music, its political power, its economic experiments — you don’t have to guess. You just have to show up.

This Black History Month, the Sarah Stevenson Tuesday Forum convened educators, musicians, civil rights veterans, and policy leaders to do what Charlotte doesn’t always make time for: reflect publicly and honestly on its Black legacy.

🎓 Education, integration and the cost of progress

On Feb. 10, five former Black students and one teacher revisited the era of cross-town busing and urban renewal.

The takeaway: The “successes” of desegregation came with displacement, disrupted learning, and fractured communities.

Speakers including David Belton, Dr. Donna Benson, Reuben Flax, Mary Johnson, Vilma Leake and Ron Ross shared lived memories — not sanitized textbook summaries.

Earlier sessions revisited the South Carolina litigation that helped shape Brown v. Board of Education, including the Briggs v. Elliott case, with reflections from historians and community voices.

Between the lines: Integration opened doors — but often closed Black institutions that were already producing excellence.

🏫 West Charlotte’s legacy still echoes

In a Feb. 10 reflection, Queen Norwood Thompson praised the discussion on education and the leadership of Mrs. Belton at West Charlotte High School.

Her note underscored something many panelists emphasized: Before forced integration, Black educational spaces in Charlotte were rigorous, structured, and deeply communal.

Read more in West Charlotte High & The Price of Desegregation.

Joseph C. Belton — described as a powerhouse — represented a generation that built institutions, not just careers.

The tension: How does Charlotte recover that level of academic excellence and presentation today?

🎶 Charlotte’s music scene confronts its silos

On Feb. 24, professionals from Charlotte’s music scene — including Harvey Cummings, Nigel Malone, Brian “Mr. Incognito” Robinson and Toni Tupponce — turned the lens inward.

Their critique wasn’t about lack of talent. It was about fragmentation. They acknowledged operating in “little silos,” not collaborating enough to mentor the next generation or pool collective power.

Big picture: Charlotte’s creative class may be thriving individually. But systemic legacy requires intergenerational strategy.

🏙 Soul City and Black economic vision

Two key figures connected to the legacy of Floyd McKissick revisited the bold 1970s experiment of Soul City in Warren County.

The project — envisioned as a self-sustaining Black-led community — was ambitious, controversial, and ahead of its time.

Former Charlotte Mayor Harvey Gantt joined discussions asking hard questions about the current assault on Black economic viability.

Dr. Charmaine McKissick-Melton and others contextualized the project not as a failure, but as a blueprint.

Zoom out: Charlotte’s Black economic imagination didn’t begin with corporate DEI. It began with land, ownership and infrastructure.

The bottom line

The Sarah Stevenson Tuesday Forum is an infrastructure that unifies the lost and hidden history of Black Charlotte. It’s where educators, musicians, historians, policy leaders and everyday citizens wrestle with:

• What worked.

• What was lost.

• What must be rebuilt.

• 
  

If you care about Black Charlotte beyond Instagram posts and annual brunches, this is where the real conversations are happening.

Want to be in rooms with real change-makers shaping Black Charlotte’s future?

Be at the Forum.