Blog 113: The Queen City Classic

By Vernon M. Herron

and other contributors

Joseph Burton, Vermelle D. Ely, Kathryn Frye, Jane Johnson, Gladys Massey, and Rufus Spears

     A classic is a traditional event, i.e. like football, setting a typical or perfect example. The Queen City Classic was the story of football games between Charlotte’s two Black high schools, Second Ward High School and West Charlotte High school during the years 1947-1969. Carver College, which was housed in the Second Ward High School’s building, also participated in the sponsorship of the classic. To understand the Queen City Classic is to understand the historical and the cultural perspectives of these two schools.

     Second Ward High School was the first high school built for Blacks in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina in 1923. By the end of 1966, it had an enrollment of over fifteen hundred students. Eighteen years into Second Ward’s existence, West Charlotte High School was born and erected. It was an outgrowth of Second Ward High School, which was demolished in 1969 by the Urban Renewal Program. West Charlotte High School was built in 1938. Its first principal, Clinton L. Blake, and many of its faculty members formerly taught at Second Ward High. Thus, West Charlotte High was a “child” of Second Ward High.

     Almost everybody attended Second Ward High, but there was an “over flow population.”  It included the bourgeois’ kids of Charlotte’s Black professional citizens, who lived west of Trade Street; these students attended West Charlotte High School. From the beginning, these two populations fostered an underlying rivalry spirit.   At first, football was the game between these two rivaling schools which was played at Harding High School’s practice field located on Irwin Ave. 

     The Queen City Classic was begun as a fund raising event and was held at the Charlotte Memorial Stadium. In addition to fund raising, a parade with floats and marching bands was scheduled but rain caused these activities to be cancelled. However, the football game proceeded and at half time, the planned pageantry was conducted. Vermelle Diamond was crowned the first queen of the Queen City Classic. She and her court received their designations according to funds raised.

   From Black America Series Charlotte, North Carolina, the following description is noted:

“At half time during the Queen City Classic football game, Miss Queen City Classic would be presented to the crowd. The 1948, queen Vermelle Diamond is surrounded by her attendants, Frank Jackson, Shirley Crane and Millie Ann Murphy. The gentlemen in the photo are officials from West Charlotte and Second Ward High Schools. One, Mr. Jackson is identified from Carver College, Fred Wiley, J. E. Grigsby and Kenneth H. Diamond, Sr. from Second Ward High and Clinton L. Blake from West Charlotte High School.”

     However, the cue for survival and personal safety depended upon which team was winning by the third quarter! It is reported that neighborhood outsiders, would start a fight of revenge at end time. Thus, by time the game was over, the stand and seat benches were empty. Because of continuous fighting, Charlotte Memorial Stadium cancelled the use of its facilities for the Second Ward High School and West Charlotte High School games. While Second Ward High was demolished by the Urban Renewal Program in 1969, West Charlotte High moved to a new building in 1954 and left its former home to Northwest Jr. High, now Northwest School of the Arts.   

     Even today, when the Queen City Classic comes to mind, “good sportsmanship” appears as a desired goal.