CLT Alliance Talks: The History of the Mecklenburg Investment Company and the Future of the Brooklyn Collective
If you’ve lived in Charlotte for long, you might have heard the story of the Brooklyn neighborhood. Covering most of what is today known as Second Ward, Brooklyn served as the heart of African American life, culture, and business from the early 1900s up until around the 1960s. Federal policies on urban renewal during the 1960s and 70s, led to the bulldozing of the neighborhood, replaced mostly with government buildings. About 1,000 families were displaced.
On Third and Brevard streets, however, a handful of buildings survived, including the Grace AME Zion Church and the Mecklenburg Investment Company. Now., those buildings have been revived as the Brooklyn Collective, including a small business incubator and cultural center.
To understand the history of these buildings, and the future of the collective, we talked with Dr. Willie Griffin, historian from the Levine Museum of the New South, Jason Wolf. And three business owners within the Brooklyn Collective, Monique Stubbs Hall of Studio 229 on Brevard, Dr. Willie Keaton of Restorative Justice and Gwen Jackson, of community engagement group Urbane Environments.
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