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Charlotte Center of the University of North Carolina founded
Bonnie Cone founded the college to be a night school for veterans returning from active duty. -
Renamed Charlotte College
To better fit into educational scene around Charlotte as well as establish validity of the school. -
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Carver College operational as "separate but equal" institution
Founded to be the "Black half" of Charlotte College, Carver College was operated by the Charlotte City School Board from 1949-1958, then by the Charlotte Community College System from 1957-1963, after which it was renamed Mecklenburg College and merged with the Industrial Education Center in '63 to create Central Piedmont Community College (CPCC). -
Charlotte college added to UNC System & renamed "UNC Charlotte"
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Marian Anderson performs at commencement
Marian Anderson was a world renowned classical music singer. She was the first African-American person to perform with the Metropolitan Opera in New York. -
Stokely Carmichael speaks
Civil rights activist Stokely Carmichael was invited to campus by Students for ACTION (Active Committee for Truth, Individualism, Opportunity, Now), but Carmichael's ties to organizations like the Black Panther Party made the choice to bring him to campus as a speaker a controversial one. Rumors surfaced that white guests would be barred from attending the speech, but VCSA Bonnie Cone intervened, diffusing a tense situation. link text -
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Black Studies Committee plans for the fall
Members of the Black Studies Committee met throughout the end of the spring semester in 1969 as well as through the whole summer to plan for the reveal of the Black Studies program. -
UNC Charlotte refuses to acknowledge Black student deaths
A group of Black students wrote to the chancellor to request he follow up on his promise to replace the Black flag back on the flag pole and fly it at half mast to honor 3 Black students were were killed in Orangeburg, SC on 02/09/1969. -
Orangeburg Vigil
Students held a vigil for the victims on the eve of the first anniversary of what became known as the “Orangeburg Massacre.” -
Admin responds poorly to demands by Black students
Instead of receiving the demands with grace and benefit of the doubt, Bonnie Cone, then-Vice Chancellor to Chancellor Colvard, chose to annotate the 10 demands with how they would not work. -
Black Students respond to Bonnie Cone
The Black Student Caucus wrote to Bonnie Cone about her response to the 10 demands they had sent in days before. -
Written Documentation of Protest on 2/28/69
In response to administration dodging requests for a Black student union and being purposefully secretive and abstruse, Black students gathered "around the flag pole" and were harassed by police. -
A citizen responds to March 3 protest
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Colvard responds to Ben Chavis
Colvard wrote a letter to Ben Chavis, prominent social activist and student at UNC Charlotte, discussing and essentially rejecting the 10 demands submitted by the Black Student Caucus. -
Planning Committee for Black Studies Program formed
Seemingly in response to increasing pressure from Black students and embarrassment at his handling of previous encounters, Chancellor Colvard sends out a memorandum to 17 faculty members and students to request they serve "as members of a Black Student Committee in order to study and make recommendations for a program of Black Studies at UNC-Charlotte." -
Mary T. Harper hired
Harper joined UNC Charlotte as the first Black full-time faculty member in UNC Charlotte’s English Department in 1971, after teaching at Newbold High School in Lincolnton, North Carolina, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, Barber-Scotia College and Johnson C. Smith University. She passed away on Oct. 1, 2020. (via https://inside.uncc.edu/news-features/2020-10-06/university-remembers-lasting-legacy-mary-harper). -
Bertha Maxwell hired
Maxwell (now Maxwell-Roddey) became UNC Charlotte's first Black administrator and a pioneering voice for the Black Studies Program after serving as one of the first Black principals to head a white elementary school in Charlotte.
