of life. If we maintain the spirit of love, our differences are stimulating but not divisive. So may it be!'” He went on to reference the 1946 creation of the Mecklenburg Baptist Inter-racial Commission, saying that “the idea was rather paternalistic, but it was a worthy idea in its time. ‘Today we work with rather than for the black community,’ he said.” In 1956 the St. Johns congregation “voted to accept responsibility for the Sunset Road Baptist Chapel in the northern section of the county. Into this Chapel and its program, St. John’s has poured many hours and many dollars. Through the Missions Committee and especially through the faithful work of Mr. Lewis Burgess, this Chapel has become a strong, cooperating Baptist Church.”
City directory listings indicate that Rev. Holloway left this house in the late 1950s. The 1959 directory showed Spencer Durante residing there with wife Rosalia while the Durante family built a new house elsewhere in McCrorey Heights at 1615 Van Buren Avenue. Durante was principal of Second Ward High, one of black Charlotte’s most important leadership positions in that era. From about 1967 into the 1970s, the dwelling was home to David J. Abraham, Jr., a barber at the Fairview Barbershop, and wife Rosetta J. Abraham, a teacher at Double Oaks School.
One-story Ranch style house in red-brick. The main block of the house has a gable roof, and a smaller gable-roofed wing extends at the west side. There is a small shed-roofed front porch with slender paired columns.
First appeared in city directory
1953. Rev. James R. Holloway and Christine H.
He: Director, Mecklenburg Baptist Inter-racial Commission. She: Nurse, Good Samaritan Hospital.
City directory collection, Robinson-Spangler Carolina Room, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library.
“Commission on Interracial Cooperation,” in Hill, Samuel S., Charles H. Lippy and Charles Reagan Wilson, Encyclopedia of Religion in the South, 2nd edition (Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, 2005), pp. 226 – 227.
Hall, Randal L., William L. Poteat, A Leader of the Progressive-Era South (University of Kentucky Press, 2015), p. 191.
Holloway, Christine. Obituary in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, April 28, 2010. On-line at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/atlanta/obituary.aspx?pid=142303906
Mullen, Donald C., A Radical Change of Direction: Memoir of a Spiritual Journey of a Surgeon (Bloomington, Indiana: WestBow Press, 2015). On-line at: https://books.google.com/books?id=8TS1CgAAQBAJ&pg=PT262&lpg=PT262&dq=Claude+Broach+%22St.+John%27s%22+desegregation&source=bl&ots=yLcWeqNJLN&sig=_B0qkqHBvvQyofCInVAgmDc2v08&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjMh96Z4rXTAhWl0YMKHUnkAvQQ6AEIOjAF#v=onepage&q=Claude%20Broach%20%22St.%20John’s%22%20desegregation&f=false
“North Carolina Commission on Interracial Cooperation,” Wikipedia website. On-line at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Carolina_Commission_on_Interracial_Cooperation
“North Carolina Commission on Interracial Cooperation Records, 1922-1974,” finding guide, collection 03823, Southern Historical Collection, UNC Chapel Hill. On-line at: http://finding-aids.lib.unc.edu/03823/
Pilkington, Charles Kirk, “The Trials of Brotherhood: The Founding of the Commission on Interracial Cooperation,” Georgia Historical Quarterly (Spring 1985), pp. 55 – 80.
Young, Richard L., and J. Kenneth Sanford, Fifty Favored Years: A History of St. Johns Baptist Church (privately published, 1972) Charlotte. On-line at: http://digital.ncdcr.gov/cdm/ref/collection/p249901coll37/id/23796
Building permit files, Robinson-Spangler Carolina Room, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library.