Cherry is one of Charlotte, North Carolina’s oldest and most historic neighborhoods: first platted as a residential community in 1891, among the oldest surviving African American residential areas in the City. The Historic Morgan School, located in Cherry, was built in 1925. The Myers Family owned and donated the land, and had the school built for children in the Cherry Community when segregation, racism, and discrimination in Charlotte prevented Black children in Cherry from going anywhere else. Morgan School was built for and belonged to Cherry.

For more than 45 years, the Cherry Community has expressed interest to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) in Reclaiming Morgan School for Cherry.  Despite a guarantee from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) that the Community would be notified once the moratorium on lease/purchase requests for the School building was lifted, promises were denied -- On January 25, 2021, Cherry representatives were notified of a pending ten-year lease agreement between CMS and an outside organization for the use of Morgan School. There can be no Equity without Equal Access and Inclusion.  Nothing about this arrangement, done behind closed doors, is fair or equitable.  Organizations and systems continually being given the opportunities, tools, and resources to dispossess, dismantle, and discriminate against long-standing communities perpetuates outcomes of disrespect, gentrification, and displacement: seen with Cherry’s sister-communities in Brooklyn and Second Ward, as well as nationwide.

Arts+, an outside organization with no history in Cherry, must not be permitted to come into Cherry and 'cherry-pick' one of the community's most historic and iconic assets. As Cherry celebrates 130 years of a proud history, stand with The Historic Cherry Community as we work to “Reclaim Morgan School for Cherry”

To read our full story and find out more ways to get involved, please visit www.TheHistoricCherry.com . We thank you for being an ally in this Ongoing Fight for Respect, Access, Opportunity, and Equity.