A new project in Charlotte’s West Boulevard corridor will display a mix of art and history. The project is a collaboration between the city and the people living in the corridor and will highlight important people, places and events that have impacted the area.
Jamil Dyair Steele sits in his dining room, opening some paint bottles. He’s painting 11 small canvases with images of children smiling as they open up books. The images will be placed on 11 markers around the West Boulevard corridor.
“They will provide pops of color throughout the corridor. They’re 9-foot by 2 feet structures,” Steele said. “So, imagine a rectangular prism standing tall at 9 feet. The front facade will depict 11 children reading books, and they’re looking up into the sky.”
This project is part of the city’s Corridors of Opportunity initiative. The city worked with the West Boulevard Neighborhood Coalition and a historian to identify the people and places residents wanted to commemorate.
They tried to find people who significantly impacted the community, like Thomas James Reddy. Otherwise known as T.J. Reddy.
“T.J. Reddy, who was an artist, an activist, poet here in Charlotte,” Steele said. “He was part of the Charlotte Three; he was wrongfully convicted of burning down a horse stable.”
The incident happened in 1968. Reddy was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 1972. Seven years later, then-Gov. Jim Hunt commuted his sentence. Rickey Hall is the board chair of the West Boulevard Neighborhood Coalition and grew up in the corridor. He remembers the moment.
“It was a grave social injustice that happened as a result of what happened on this site,” Hall said. “Three African American men were wrongfully accused, and the justice system went after them with a vengeance.”
Standing on the spot where the stables burned, now home to a community garden, Hall said he’s glad Reddy will be remembered for more than his wrongful conviction, also for his art and activism.
“If you looked at T.J. Reddy’s work, it was a collection of the natural environment, the people, the homes, the schools, the struggles, the challenges,” Hall said. “All of that is what you see out there in that garden.”
Another marker is expected to go up near Moore’s Sanctuary AME Zion Church, about a six-minute drive from the garden. The church is another critical piece of history that the art will depict. Michael Moore is a historian providing information about the 11 markers. He said the church is the heartbeat of the corridor.
“It is the cornerstone of the whole community and central to its history,” Moore said. “When the Civil War ended, a free Black property owner along West Boulevard donated an acre of land to create a school, a freedmen school for the newly freed folks who hadn’t had a chance to learn.”
The school existed for a short period in the 1860s in the same area Moore’s Sanctuary AME Zion Church was founded. Later, the church founded another school called the Plato Price School. It was built next to the church and taught African Americans until the 1960s. A separate marker will also tell the story of Charles Parker, one of the church’s founders.
“Charles was born in slavery; he secretly learned to read as a boy. After slavery, he helped to create Moore’s Sanctuary,” Moore said. “He was also a teacher and became a leader of the entire community.”
Parker will be remembered with his wife, Rachel Parker. The couple bought land in the corridor along Remount Road in the 1890s and helped other people purchase land. By the 1920s, Moore said, the area became the center of Black home and farm ownership. Moore has studied the West Boulevard corridor history for seven years. He said the 11 markers will help people remember the history of West Boulevard as the corridor evolves.
“This community is here; this community has a history; this community is committed to this place,” Moore said. “And in today’s context, where there are such strong development pressures, gentrification pressures more than ever, it is important to be reminded of those things and the necessity for recognizing the people that are there and fighting for equity as things inevitably change.”
The markers will be located near Interstate 77 and Billy Graham Parkway along the corridor. The city expects to install the markers by the end of the year.
