Stanford Brookshire oral history interview 2, 1973 April 3

Description

In this second interview with Ed Perzel, Stanford Brookshire discusses his experiences as mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina from 1961-1969. He begins by talking about the bombing of four civil rights leader's homes in Charlotte in 1965 and his role in the community meeting that took place afterward. Mr. Brookshire discusses in detail a dispute between the City Council and Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners, led by Sam Atkinson, over water and sewer service to Mecklenburg County. He discusses Charlotte's urban renewal program, including opposition from the business community to using federal funds for local purposes, building public housing to replace housing torn down in urban renewal, his belief that the biggest critics of urban renewal were individuals who owned the houses as investment properties that were torn down, and the idea that Independence Boulevard was developed in the way it was to hit certain individuals' properties. Other contentious issues during Mr. Brookshire's terms as mayor discussed in the interview include the building of a civic center, plans to redevelop an old Southern Railway property, road construction planning in south Charlotte, the Charlotte Area Fund, and the Model Cities program in Charlotte. Mr. Brookshire also recounts important civic leaders of his time, including R.S. Dickson, J. Murrey Atkins, and William "Bill" Veeder, and talks about his current work at the time of the interview.