CHARLOTTE — Each time you pass Bank of America Stadium in Uptown Charlotte, you’ll also pass a part of Charlotte’s and the nation’s painful history.
In 1913, Joe McNeely, a Black man, was lynched on the site.
It would happen again years later at another Charlotte landmark.
More than a century later, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Remembrance Project is working to ensure their names and stories are never forgotten.
“It is really important to tell the truth about things that have taken place in Charlotte Mecklenburg,” said Krista Terrell, a member of the group’s steering committee.
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Remembrance Project is part of a national movement through the nonprofit, Equal Justice Initiative. It’s researchers documented 6,500 cases of racial terror lynchings between 1865 and 1950.
The EJI documented two lynchings in Mecklenburg County. The first of which happened outside then Good Samaritan Hospital, which currently stands as Bank of America Stadium.
“Even when I drive by, and I drive by here all the time, there’s something that really stirs inside of me,” said Hannah Hasan.
Hasan is a spoken word poet commissioned by the group to tell the men’s stories.
“Who they were as humans before we get to a place where we are talking about them as victims,” Hasan said. “And also what it meant for what this space is now, it just felt, it feels very heavy.
Newspapers of the day tell part of the history, with headlines that included “Majesty of the law trampled upon by Mecklenburg mob,” following McNeely’s death. Another read “Lynchers identity remains complete mystery so far.”
In August 1913, a mob pulled Joe McNeely from his bed at Good Samaritan Hospital, dragged him into the street, and killed him. He was 22.
Days before, McNeely was involved in a confrontation with a white police officer.
“Charlotte leaders were touting how great Charlotte was, and how the race relations were good and that they had never had a lynching in Charlotte,” Terrell said.
McNeely would be the first lynching on record in Mecklenburg County. The other documented case occurred at present-day Reedy Creek Park.
In 1929, Willie McDaniel was found dead, and his neck broken, on the farm where he and his wife rented land. The day before, McDaniel was in an argument with his white landlord.
“I think the big thing that stood out to me with both cases is that no one was ever indicted,” said Terrell.
“There was never any justice, no one was brought to justice.”
In addition to telling their stories, committee members with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Remembrance Project have been advocating for historical markers at each site.
Their website includes support letters from the city’s mayor, county manager, and Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper.
In 2021, they collected soil from the stadium site with plans to do the same at Reedy Creek Park.
“EJI asked us to tell the story, and as we have told the story, other stories have emerged,” said Elisa Chinn-Gary, the group’s Community Engagement chair.
Chinn-Gary is the county clerk of Superior Court and among members on the project’s steering committee. She said sharing the stories of McNeely and McDaniel created the space to share her own.
She said her uncle was lynched when he was a teenager.
“My greatest hope is that the history informs the present,” Chinn-Gary said.
“So much that is happening in the world today people question why. I believe that there is an opportunity to let history share some of those answers. So it’s my hope that we have the courage and the willingness to talk about that history.”
In the coming months, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Remembrance Project will host community conversations, providing updates on the group’s website.
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