West Charlotte High: Model of community and excellence

PHOTO | TROY HULL

West Charlotte High School alumni gathered in August 2022 to mark the campus’ transition to a new site on Senior Drive. West Charlotte opened in 1938 as the city’s second high school for Black students.

It has been over 60 years since Mecklenburg County’s public schools desegregated.

West Charlotte High School is an example of the progress made since the end of legal segregation. The school opened in 1938 as the second high school for Black children after Second Ward.

The history of West Charlotte High includes a national pioneer as a successfully desegregated campus in 1970 after the U.S. Supreme Court approved the use of busing for racial parity in Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.

Notable alumni include Therasea Elder, the first Black public health nurse in Charlotte, state Rep. Kelly Alexander and former Charlotte mayor and U.S. secretary of transportation Anthony Foxx. Alumni return every year during homecoming to relive their favorite memories and fight for the school’s preserved legacy.

Some have even died to protect what it means to the Black community. In 1989, 17-year-old Alex Orange, a fullback on the football team, was shot and killed defending the building from students from another school allegedly looking for trouble.

That incident was the spark for what is now known as Student Against Violence Everywhere, or SAVE, a national initiative to stop the violence from penetrating through the school.

“Our alumni are the lifeline of the school,” social studies teacher Ayanna Perry said. “They pour into our school and they have so much pride it's contagious. West Charlotte is an amazing school and a hidden gem that many people don’t really know enough about.”  

Perry, who started teaching at West Charlotte six years ago, says the experience has been rewarding.

“I learned about West Charlotte while taking one of my African American History courses and I fell in love with the school,” she said. “So, when I was getting ready to apply for teaching jobs, West Charlotte was my top choice.”  

Over the years the school has made changes, including a new campus at 2219 Senior Drive in time for the 2022-23 academic year. The campus includes 100 new classrooms and state-of-the-art smart boards, a big shift from West Charlotte’s 1954 design located next door at 1415 Beatties Ford Road. The school, though, continues to impact students and staff with its rich legacy.

“Many of the students when they learn about the history of the class which is often taught during our first week of homeroom and if they take African American studies are about the alumni that have come out of the school,” Perry said. “It’s always very powerful for many of the students to see themselves in those alums.

“My favorite fact is about how the school was the poster child for school integration and how the school became the prototype for how schools should be integrated.”

 
Not only has the school taught their students Black history in the Charlotte area but how the school helped create some of that history. “I teach the African American studies course and we created a whole additional unit around the history of the school and Beatties Ford Road,” Perry said.

One of the strongest factors of the school is its alumni, and how they continue to promote the influence the institution left in them. Many of its current students come from many generations of alumni, waiting to one day give back the same school spirit and appreciation that was implemented on them as students.  

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