A conversation of race and equity in Charlotte
In this special conversation, host Mary C. Curtis is joined by local leaders and experts at Project 658 in Charlotte to look at how far the city has come, and what still needs to happen to approve upward mobility in Charlotte.
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North Carolina and the country lost a legend last month with the death of the Rev. Dr. Nelson N. Johnson at age 81. He is most known for being wounded in the 1979 anti-Klan protest march, known as the Greensboro Massacre, in which white supremacists killed five marchers and wounded a dozen more. But Johnson also collaborated with Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and was often on the frontlines of protest marches nationwide.
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President-elect Trump has called for revoking Temporary Protected Status for some countries. Some immigrants in Charlotte with TPS fear the possibility of being deported if the program is rescinded.
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As Charlotte grows, questions about how to build a more equitable city constantly emerge. WFAE’s SouthBound host Tommy Tomlinson aims to explore some ideas on Thursday regarding planning, preserving and building neighborhoods, and the arts. Here’s a look at the panelists who will take the stage.
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The Thornhill Rites of Passage Foundation works with boys in the seventh and eighth grades to build their character, grow their financial literacy and help equip them to navigate obstacles that arise as they transition from teens to adults.
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Over the past few years, the population of homeless people has grown — and become more visible — in Charlotte, and helping to solve the problem won’t be quick, simple or cheap. But local experts say the costs of action should be weighed against the cost of doing nothing.
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Turnout was low in Mecklenburg County’s municipal elections earlier this month — about 15.5%, or right around average for our off-year elections. Preliminary statistics show the people who voted were more likely to be white, female and not Hispanic than the county as a whole.
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Harvard economist Raj Chetty had a sobering message for people in Charlotte working to increase economic mobility: Don’t expect quick results. In fact, be prepared to wait, and work, for decades.
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Next week, the Hmong community will celebrate the most important holiday in their culture: the New Year. In North Carolina, home to the country's fourth-largest Hmong population, the annual festivities will be in Newton, about 50 miles northwest of Charlotte.
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It’s been almost a decade since Harvard economist Raj Chetty released his report that ranked the Charlotte region 50th out of 50 for economic mobility, shocking local leaders used to the image of Charlotte as a New South boomtown brimming with opportunity for all. Next Tuesday, Chetty will visit UNC Charlotte to talk about his latest work, focused on social capital.
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Iranians in Charlotte continue to speak out against Iran's Islamic Republic regime and cope — by creating art. Behzad Riazi, a Charlotte-based Iranian artist and cartoonist, immigrated in 2017. After earning his MFA at Penn State, he returned to Charlotte in 2022 to pursue art full-time.
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Charlotte baker Norma Zuñiga has been getting ready for the holiday rush, specifically Día de los Muertos, Mexico’s Day of the Dead, on Nov. 1. She’s been busy in the kitchen to meet the Charlotte-area demand for one of the day’s traditional altar offerings.
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Only 42% of Head Start centers across the U.S. are located within walking distance of a transit stop, meaning that, for many low-income families, transportation is a major obstacle in accessing a service they’re entitled to.
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Charlotte-based nonprofit Circle de Luz is celebrating its 15th year with a coming-of-age party — a quinceañera ball. The organization is dedicated to getting more Latina girls on track for college.
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Nadine Ford is a swim coach and the executive director of Evolutionary Aquatics — a primarily Black swim club dedicated to teaching adults how to swim. It also provides a space where Black people can talk about issues that affect them.
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Matthew Desmond made his name writing a detailed, searingly blunt book about the effects of eviction on poor American families. His new book tackles an even bigger subject: Poverty, and why it persists in the U.S. despite our nation’s great wealth. And — perhaps a bit incongruously for someone who writes about the myriad ways poverty, racism and a lack of opportunity grind people down — he thinks we all fall too readily into the trap of cynicism, resignation and even despair.
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As Venezuelans flee economic and political turmoil in Latin America, they’ve quickly become the U.S.'s largest TPS community. Over the coming weeks, tens of thousands of Venezuelans in the U.S. will take their first steps toward establishing the legal right to live and work in the U.S. — at least temporarily, including 17,000 in North Carolina.
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Race and economics, equity in the physical design of our spaces, the way our various attributes influence whether we can access the basic services it takes to live a good life — here are three ongoing stories in Charlotte this fall and winter that have big implications for equity in our community, and, by extension, for you.
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Charlotte-based spoken word artist and poet Hannah Hasan is in high demand these days. She’s created and performed customized poetry for different organizations and people all over the city and across the country. For Hasan, telling people’s stories is a privilege — and what she does for a living.
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As school systems, universities and museums throughout the United States reckon with ways to present the history of slavery, three of the oldest, most historic properties in Mecklenburg County are no exception.
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Multidisciplinary artist Irisol González Vega will make her cinematic debut, premiering her first short film at Charlotte’s Independent Picture House on Friday, Sept. 8.
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There are few bigger worries than displacement and gentrification for many neighborhoods in Charlotte, a city with a well-known fondness for bulldozers, cranes and shiny new buildings. And as traditionally low-income, majority-Black neighborhoods around uptown experience some of the most dramatic changes and skyrocketing real estate prices, that’s led local politicians to focus intensely on avoiding, or at least mitigating, some of the impacts.
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Latino workers earned 78 cents on the dollar compared to the national average over the past year. But they’re also making economic gains. That’s according to an analysis by Well Fargo Economics, unveiled last week by the Latin American Chamber of Commerce Charlotte.