Three Black Charlotte leaders considered to rename CMS school, survey asks for input

Named for a white supremacist, Barringer Academic Center will soon be renamed to honor one of three Black community organizers and activists in Charlotte.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools is conducting a survey of community members, parents, alumni and students to determine the new name for the school from a list of three options.

The choices are Judy Howard Williams, who founded the support group Mothers of Murdered Offspring; Charles H. Parker, who was born into slavery and went on to help Black families buy land and build homes near Remount Road; and T.J. Reddy, a civil rights activist and artist whose murals can be seen around Charlotte.

Williams founded MOM-O after her goddaughter, Shawna Hawk, was killed in 1993. Since then, the group has supported families through loss and demanded a stop to the violence in Charlotte. Its work has been nationally recognized and replicated elsewhere, the Observer previously reported.

After a three-year battle with lung cancer, Williams died in October. Friends and fellow organizers said she gave back to the community until her death, and that her impact on the community was so meaningful over the past 27 years that it is almost impossible to quantify.

‘She mothered me.’ Judy Williams consoled families of Charlotte murder victims, dies at 69

Parker was born into slavery in 1844 and secretly learned to read as a child. In 1892, he and his wife bought 12 acres near Remount Road and built homes for Black families. The family carried on the legacy after his death — in 1970, his children created the Parker Heights Apartments to provide affordable housing.

Beyond housing, Parker’s work in Charlotte also had an impact on education and other community institutions. He was part of creating the Moore’s Sanctuary A.M.E. Zion Church and worked to start the Plato Price School, which educated Black children in the area for 50 years.

Reddy was one of three civil rights activists in Charlotte convicted of burning down a stable that had refused to serve Black customers. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 1972, but doubts began to emerge about the convictions. The sentences were eventually commuted in 1979, after the Observer reported that the federal government had secretly paid off two key witnesses in the case.

An artist, musician and poet, Reddy was known for his work in Social Realism, which sought to call attention to the poor and to challenge government and social systems. His work can be seen around Charlotte, in murals and public art projects at the Gantt Center for African American Arts & Culture, the Levine Museum of the New South and UNCC. Reddy died in 2019, at age 73, after being diagnosed with multiple myeloma.

TJ Reddy, artist and poet once jailed as part of the ‘Charlotte Three,’ dies at 73

‘Names and symbols matter.’ Barringer school, named for white supremacist, to get new name

CMS survey on Barringer renaming

The district started the renaming process for Barringer in October. The school is named for Osmond L. Barringer, an early 20th century automobile enthusiast who developed the Revolution Park neighborhood. But Barringer and his family were also vocal white supremacists, active during the White Supremacy Campaign of 1898 to 1900.

Barringer led a massive parade through the city in 1900, where hundreds marched for “a white men’s government” as part of the state’s Red Shirt Movement. The campaign led to a rewriting of the state constitution, requiring a poll tax and literacy test that disenfranchised Black voters.

Like many school districts, municipalities and state governments throughout the country, CMS is in the process of removing namesakes and other tributes to racist historical figures from its grounds.

The district’s first move was to strip Zebulon B. Vance High School of its Confederate, slaveowner namesake. The school was renamed in honor of Julius L. Chambers, the pioneering civil rights lawyer whose work led to a period of integration in CMS.

The results from the survey will be shared with the school board, which has the final say on a name choice.

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