50 Stories for 50 Years

Historic Brooklyn: The Legacy Lives On

The Brooklyn neighborhood was a predominantly black community that prided itself as a self-sustainable “city within a city.” Located in Second Ward, Brooklyn was home to black families of all socioeconomic backgrounds where one could find homes that ranged from shotgun shacks to palatial gated mansions. Known for its vibrant shops, entertainment venues, restaurants, schools, and places of worship, Brooklyn was the center of Black life in Charlotte during the mid-20th century.

During the 1960s and 1970s, Brooklyn was razed in Charlotte’s first wave of “urban renewal,” displacing thousands of neighborhood residents and ultimately destroying more than 1,480 structures. The legacy of Brooklyn lives on today and part of that legacy is the Gantt Center.