Storytellers: Jimmie Lee and De Kirkpatrick and Legacies of Slavery in Mecklenburg County

Jimmie Lee Kirkpatrick and De Kirkpatrick were classmates at Myers Park High School in the 1960s, but it was almost 50 years later that the two men discovered their connection: De’s great-great-grandfather, Hugh Kirkpatrick, owned Jimmie Lee’s great-great-great-grandfather, a slave named Sam. Together, the Kirkpatricks began examining their families and Mecklenburg County where they grew up and where, in 1860, one in three people was a slave.

The men’s telling of their compelling, intertwined histories has ongoing relevance to Charlotte’s and the nation’s progress towards creating greater racial equality.

This is the Center for the Study of the New South’s first presentation of “Storytellers,” the Center’s 2017-18 series of activities. Co-presented by the History Department, the Kirkpatricks will share their story with the campus community. The talk with be held in Belk Gym, Room 201, UNC Charlotte.

Jimmie Lee Kirkpatrick is a retired educator and high school footballstandout who lives in Oregon, and H.D. “De” Kirkpatrick is an author and forensic psychologist in Charlotte.