Local

CMS ended segregation 60 years ago; Charlotte native recalls those days

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Sixty years ago, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools ended segregation, and Dorothy Counts-Scoggins was one of the first students to do be apart of desegregation.

Counts-Scoggins spoke to Channel 9 reporter Elsa Gillis about the challenges then, and what she hopes to see for the district now.

"When I walk up here and I look, I think in terms of the fact that my goal was to get through that door,” Counts-Scoggins said. "I'm walking through a crowd, 200 or 300 people. Of course, the slurs were going. I was being spat upon, you know, those kinds of things. Those things didn't bother me. I felt that once I got inside, I'd be safe."

At age 15, she was one of the first students to desegregate Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, going to what was then Harding High School, now the Irwin Academic Center campus, a decision carefully monitored by her family.

"Each day, they would ask me and they'd say to me, 'What do you think? Well, what happened today?' and I would tell them, and I'd always say, ‘I'll go back. It's going to be better. Tomorrow's going to be a better day.' I really believed that,” Counts-Scoggins said.

After physical harassment and no guarantee for her safety, her family pulled her from the school. She finished high school up north before coming back to Charlotte for college and to settle down.

Counts-Scoggins’ short time at the school was not insignificant.

"This is where it got started," she said.

What she began in Charlotte, the push for equity in education is something she said our community must not forget.

"A lot has changed but a lot has gone back. Charlotte has history here and I'd like us to make sure that that continues," Counts-Scoggins said. "I do have hope that things will be better for our children."