Frederick Douglas Alexander Papers
Public papers of a Charlotte politician and civil rights leader. Primarily material created and received by Alexander as the first African-American member of the Charlotte City Council in the 20th century and as a North Carolina state senator.

Kelly M. Alexander Papers
Papers documenting Alexander's service with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and his presidency of the North Carolina State Conference of Branches. Includes Alexander family correspondence and photographs.

American New Left Collection
Pamphlets and other printed items published by various radical groups based largely in the Midwest. Material addresses such issues as the Vietnam War, civil rights, racism, black power, socialism and communism, labor, and women's liberation.

H. H. Baxter Papers
Photocopies of scrapbooks kept by Baxter, Charlotte mayor (1943-49) and city council member (1935-41, 1951-59). Includes correspondence, clippings, speeches, and other material relating primarily to his political and civic activities.

Hugh Joseph Beard Papers
Papers of a Charlotte lawyer and political activist. Includes correspondence with numerous conservative political and religious groups, including the North Carolina Congressional Club, the Young Republicans, and Birthchoice, an anti-abortion group.

John Montgomery Belk Papers
Official papers as mayor of Charlotte (1969-77), dating primarily from his last term. Includes correspondence, reports, and speeches relating to the administration of city government, especially community development, roads, and mass transit.

J. Spencer Bell Papers
Correspondence of a state senator from Mecklenburg County and U.S. Circuit Court judge. Includes letters from presidents Kennedy and Johnson and from members of the federal judiciary.

Stanford R. Brookshire Papers
Papers of Charlotte's first four-term mayor (1961-69). Comprised of subject files, correspondence, and speeches documenting a decade of change, particularly in regard to desegregation and the role of federal government in addressing urban problems.

Catawba Lands Conservancy Records
Records of a land trust established to preserve natural areas and open spaces in the Catawba River Basin and the southern Piedmont region of North Carolina. Includes correspondence, board minutes, newsletters, and newspaper clippings.

Julius Levonne Chambers Papers
Files of a Charlotte attorney relating to his representation of the plaintiffs in the landmark case Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education that established busing as a constitutional method for desegregating schools.

Charlotte City Records
Primarily financial records concerning appropriations and expenditures of the city government, 1890s-1920s. Includes material relating to the overall budget and to schools, taxes, business licenses, payrolls, and Elmwood and Pinewood cemeteries.

Charlotte Area Educational Consortium Records
Minutes and correspondence documenting the work of an organization of local colleges and universities

Charlotte City Board of Education Records
Primarily minute books from 1890 to the consolidation of the city and county school systems in 1960. Also includes indexes, annual report (1891), and pamphlet (1935) supporting a tax levy for schools.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Charter Commission Records
Official records of a commission appointed to recommend a consolidated government for Mecklenburg County, the city of Charlotte, and the then five towns. Includes outlines and drafts of the charter and supporting documentation.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Community Relations Committee Records
Records of a committee established in 1961 by the mayor of Charlotte to help ease racial tensions and to assist in the gradual desegregation of public facilities. Includes materials relating to its predecessor, the Friendly Relations Committee.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission Reports
Primarily narrative survey and research reports prepared to evaluate structures and sites for inclusion on the local register of historic places. Reports include information on present and former owners of the properties.

Ben E. Douglas Papers
Papers of a Charlotte mayor (1935-41), businessman, and promoter of aviation. Consists primarily of material relating to Douglas's service (1961-79) on the Airport Advisory Committee for Charlotte/Douglas International Airport.

Laura Frech Papers
Papers of a Charlotte educator and politician, documenting her service as city council member for District 4 (1977-1985). Includes correspondence, reports, and financial data relating to such issues as the controversy over a site for the new coliseum.

Adelaide L. Fries Papers
Material relating to the authenticity of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, including a letter (1916) by Fries concerning Traugott Bagge's report that "the County of Mecklenburg declared itself free and independent of England" in 1775.

Hoyt R. Galvin Papers
Papers as chair of the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce Education Committee (1954-56), whose work helped to gain support and funding for Charlotte and Carver colleges.

Harvey B. Gantt Papers
Gantt's official files as the first African-American mayor of Charlotte (1983-87). Includes correspondence, reports, and speeches on such topics as the controversy over a site for the new coliseum and Charlotte's bid for an NBA franchise.

Elmer Henry Garringer Papers
Papers of a Charlotte educator and state legislator. Contains correspondence, photographs, awards, and material about Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools, particularly Central and West Charlotte high schools.

Benjamin Gitlow Papers
Papers of a co-founder of the Communist Labor Party and the Communist Party USA, who later became an avid anti-Communist. Consists of printed material (1949-65), correspondence, speeches, and writings from all periods of his life.

Harry Golden Papers [Part One]
Papers of a journalist, best selling author, and civil libertarian. Consists of material generated as editor of the Charlotte-based Carolina Israelite but also documenting his involvement in the Democratic Party, the civil rights movement, and Jewish issues.

Frank Porter Graham Collection
Recordings of radio broadcasts and advertisements made during Graham's 1950 campaign for the U.S. Senate seat from North Carolina. Includes an interview and statements on his platform, political philosophy, and agricultural program.

Joseph W. Grier Papers
Papers relating to the attempt to integrate city-owned Bonnie Brae Golf Course (1951) and to Richardson Preyer's unsuccessful North Carolina gubernatorial campaign (1964).

Kenneth R. Harris Papers
Official papers as mayor of Charlotte (1977-79). Includes subject files and correspondence relating to the administration of city government, with an emphasis on community development and the debate over a thoroughfare in southeast Charlotte.

Reginald A. Hawkins Papers
Papers of a Charlotte dentist, minister, and civil rights activist, who was the first African-American to run for governor of North Carolina. Contains correspondence documenting his involvement in the desegregation of schools and public accommodations.

Benjamin S. Horack Papers
Papers of a Charlotte attorney relating to his defense in the landmark case Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that busing to achieve racial integration of public schools is constitutional.

Mary Anna Morrison Jackson Papers
Essay by the widow of Confederate General Stonewall Jackson concerning the 1905 visit of President Theodore Roosevelt to Charlotte and photocopies of letters pertaining to pensions for veterans and widows of veterans of the Mexican War.

W. A. Kennedy Papers
Papers of a Charlotte businessman and engineer relating to his role in promoting Charlotte College as a community college and technical institute and in securing for it status as a four-year, state-supported college.

Eddie Knox Papers
Official papers as mayor of Charlotte (1979-83). Includes subject files, correspondence, and speeches relating to such topics as annexation, zoning, the proposed new coliseum, and transportation.

Edwin P. Latimer Papers
Material documenting Latimer's membership on the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Energy Conservation Task Force, created in 1973 under sponsorship of the city, county, and Charlotte Chamber of Commerce.

R. Stewart Lillard papers, 1771 - 2000
Includes material from Lillard's 1989 Charlotte city council campaign and political campaign materials from the Charlotte area.

William J. McCoy Papers
Papers of a UNC Charlotte professor and director of the Urban Institute, documenting his membership on the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Planning Commission. Contains rezoning petitions, minutes, agendas, subject files, and correspondence.

Timothy D. Mead Papers
Papers of a UNC Charlotte political science professor primarily documenting his membership on the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Planning Commission. Includes rezoning petitions, proposed developments, correspondence, reports, district plans, and maps.

Mecklenburg County Board of Education Records
Primarily minutes from 1885 to the consolidation of the city and county school systems in 1960. Also includes account books (1928-31).

Mecklenburg County Health Department Records
Contains annual reports, minutes, and photographs of department staff and clientele.

Sue Myrick Papers
Papers documenting the two mayoral terms (1987-91) of Charlotte's first female mayor, including drug prevention efforts, traffic congestion, a new convention center, and Charlotte's bid for a National Football League team.

North Carolina County Core Collection
Microfilm copies of county records preserved in the North Carolina State Archives. Includes court, estate, land, and tax records dating primarily from the 18th and 19th centuries.

North Carolina Fund Records
Records of an anti-poverty demonstration project. Includes grant proposals, annual reports, studies of housing and community development problems, and information on specific projects in Mecklenburg, Iredell, Rowan, Stanly, and Union counties.

Panama Canal Treaties Collection
Material relating to the treaty terminating U.S. ownership of the Panama Canal. Contains letters, speeches, and position statements of U.S. Senators, including Jesse Helms and Robert Morgan of North Carolina.

John Johnston Parker Papers
Speeches and a few offprints of articles by a judge of the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals and alternate judge at the Nuremberg Trial.

Boyd E. Payton Papers
Material relating to the involvement of this Textile Workers Union of America official in a strike at Harriet-Henderson Mills in Henderson, N.C., his conviction and imprisonment amidst allegations of a state-supported frame-up, and his eventual pardon.

Minnie Stowe Puett Papers
Contains broadsides published by the Equal Suffrage Association of North Carolina and the National Woman Suffrage Publishing Company, Inc. and correspondence and printed material concerning activities of the League of Women Voters.

Margaret Whitton Ray Papers
Papers of the chair of the Citizens Advisory Group, formed in 1973 to develop pupil assignment guidelines for desegregating Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools. Includes clippings, correspondence, findings, recommendations, reports, and worksheets.

W.Thomas Ray Papers
Papers of a Charlotte lawyer and politician, documenting his membership on the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners (1978-84). Includes campaign files and material reflecting his special interests in human services, mental health, and roads.

F. Marion Redd Papers
Papers of a mayor of Charlotte and juvenile court judge. Includes speeches, arguments of Redd as a defense attorney in murder cases, correspondence, photographs, and material on the United Confederate Veterans Reunion in Charlotte (1929).

T. J. Reddy Papers
Papers of a Charlotte artist, poet, and civil rights activist, highlighting his role as one of the Charlotte Three and his interest in the civil rights movement. Contains material concerning his controversial arrest, trial and conviction for arson.

Robert E. Scoggin Papers, 1900 - 2003
Papers of a member and grand dragon of the Ku Klux Klan in South Carolina, primarily from the 1960s to the 1980s. This collection consists primarily of publications of various Klan organizations, but also includes correspondence, newspaper clippings, periodicals, film footage, and personal information.

Victor Shaw Papers
Papers of Shaw, Charlotte mayor (1949-53), primarily related to his first term. Includes correspondence, speeches, clippings, memorabilia, photographs, and a recording of Dwight D. Eisenhower's presidential campaign speech in Charlotte (1952).

H. Milton Short Papers
Papers relating to his membership on the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Consolidation Study Committee and his involvement with Crestran Corporation, which analyzed the feasibility of high-speed rail passenger service between Raleigh and Anderson, S.C.

Richard Elton Thigpen Papers
Records of his work as Mecklenburg County manager for Willis Smith's 1950 U.S. Senate campaign. Includes recordings of debates between Thigpen and David McConnell, county manager of the opposing Frank Porter Graham campaign.

Minette Trosch Papers
Papers of a Charlotte city council member, including material relating to her service with the National League of Cities and as a member of the Hazardous Materials Transportation Committee of the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Philip Lance Van Every Papers
Primarily papers relating to his two terms as mayor of Charlotte (1953-57). Includes routine correspondence, speeches, clippings, biographical information, and photographs.

Richard Vinroot Papers
Papers documenting his two terms as mayor of Charlotte. Highlights the city council, community development, consolidation of city and county government, crime, cultural relations, education, housing, municipal services, and sports.

William Waggoner Papers
Papers of a Charlotte attorney relating to his defense of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education in the landmark case, Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education.

McChord Williams Collection
Booklets and pamphlets produced by conservative, anti-communist organizations, including J. Edgar Hoover, the John Birch Society, the National Council of Churches, Walter Reuther, and a Christmas card from Herbert A. Philbrick.

Leslie Winner Papers
Papers of a Charlotte attorney relating to her representation of the plantiff in Gingles v. Edmisten, in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the state of North Carolina illegally weakened the voting power of African-Americans in state house elections.