"A Binding Truth" documentary film about racial history and Jimmie Lee Kirkpatrick and De Kirkpatrick

A three-part series for the Charlotte Observer told the story of Jimmie Lee Kirkpatrick, the first Black football star to play at predominantly white Myers Park High — at the explosive intersection of race and football in 1960s’ Charlotte.

A shocking phone call led to a second series: The story of Jimmie Lee and another Kirkpatrick, De, and how they’d been born with histories entwined in the legacy of Charlotte, and America, in the 1860s.

The two series inspired a documentary film, now on PBS.

A BINDING TRUTH

READ THE FIRST SERIES

READ THE SECOND

“Nothing can be changed until it is faced,” James Baldwin wrote. Facing the truth about what happened to Joe McNeely and Willie McDaniel — here — and why it matters today, is what the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Remembrance Project hopes to help us all do.

REMEMBRANCE PROJECT

READ JOE McNEELY'S STORY IN 1913, IN DETAIL

READ WILLIE McDANIEL'S STORY IN 1929, IN DETAIL

READ ABOUT A SHOCKING RELATED CASE IN 1924

GO TO CMRP's HOMEPAGE

WILLIE McDANIEL’s STORY

Charlotte’s longest-running Black newspaper, The Charlotte Post, ran this five-part series, a quicker-paced narrative version of the story of Willie McDaniel.

The paper then hosted a powerful community talk about history and healing, with local therapist Justin Perry; artist Hannah Hasan; journalist Fannie Flono; co-founder of Race Matters for Juvenile Justice Elisa Chinn-Gary; and Davidson professor Dan Aldridge.

Charlotte Post series about lynching of Willie McDaniel

READ THE SERIES

Charlotteans talk one year after Keith Lamont Scott protests

1 YEAR AFTER KEITH LAMONT SCOTT

What had we learned? What had we not? The Observer asked seven Charlotteans about their work in the face of this tragedy, and what they saw ahead; Helen edited the package.

Charlotteans talk one year after Keith Lamont Scott, Jackson, Barbee

Charlotteans talk one year after Keith Lamont Scott, Funderburg, Jacobs

READ THE STORIES

Charlotte Observer story about race and Marines in Vietnam

A MARINE’S STORY

The story of one of nine names on a Vietnam memorial in the Gaston County town of Dallas, and how this man — in life and death — changed others.

READ HIS STORY

Charlotte Observer story about concussions in high school soccer

THE GIRL WHO

STAYED IN

Sarah was tough, a quality her coaches always admired. If it were up to her, she was never coming out of a game. Then, the headaches came.

What she did next became an inspiration.

READ THE STORIES

DREAMING OF EVANGELINE

Like her name, the letters to Evangeline are from another time. They were written in the 1940s by three World War II soldiers dreaming of a young woman back home. How the letters ended up across the country is a mystery. They document an even more unlikely romance.

READ THE STORY

A three-part series for the Charlotte Observer told the story of Jimmie Lee Kirkpatrick, the first Black football star to play at predominantly white Myers Park High — at the explosive intersection of race and football in 1960s’ Charlotte.

A shocking phone call led to a second series: The story of Jimmie Lee and another Kirkpatrick, De, and how they’d been born with histories entwined in the legacy of Charlotte, and America, in the 1860s.

The two series inspired a documentary film, now on PBS.

A BINDING TRUTH

“Nothing can be changed until it is faced,” James Baldwin wrote. Facing the truth about what happened to Joe McNeely and Willie McDaniel — here — and why it matters today, is what the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Remembrance Project hopes to help us all do.

REMEMBRANCE PROJECT

WILLIE McDANIEL’s STORY

Charlotte’s longest-running Black newspaper, The Charlotte Post, ran this five-part series, a quicker-paced narrative version of the story of Willie McDaniel.

The paper then hosted a powerful community talk about history and healing, with local therapist Justin Perry; artist Hannah Hasan; journalist Fannie Flono; co-founder of Race Matters for Juvenile Justice Elisa Chinn-Gary; and Davidson professor Dan Aldridge.

1 YEAR AFTER KEITH LAMONT SCOTT

What had we learned? What had we not? The Observer asked seven Charlotteans about their work in the face of this tragedy, and what they saw ahead; Helen edited the package.

A MARINE’S STORY

The story of one of nine names on a Vietnam memorial in the Gaston County town of Dallas, and how this man — in life and death — changed others.

THE GIRL WHO

STAYED IN

Sarah was tough, a quality her coaches always admired. If it were up to her, she was never coming out of a game. Then, the headaches came.

What she did next became an inspiration.

DREAMING OF EVANGELINE

Like her name, the letters to Evangeline are from another time. They were written in the 1940s by three World War II soldiers dreaming of a young woman back home. How the letters ended up across the country is a mystery. They document an even more unlikely romance.

SCHWAB PROJECTS