Excelsior Club

The Excelsior Club, established by James “Jimmie” Robert McKee in 1944, was listed in the Green Book from 1963-1967. The Excelsior was listed in the Green Book as “Excelsior Club---921 Beatties Ford Road” in Charlotte.¹
    
James “Jimmie” Robert McKee was born in Laurens, South Carolina, in 1912. He grew up in the Charlotte neighborhood of Biddleville, near Johnson C. Smith University, with his parents, John and Violet Mckee, and nine siblings. After the death of his father, Jimmie, the second oldest of the McKee children, dropped out of school at the age of 14 and began working to help support the family. He worked a number of day jobs, including as a packer at a wholesale cigar store, a porter at a wholesale clothing store, and as a mail clerk at Horton Motor Lines. He also worked at night -- as a bartender, serving drinks primarily at white country clubs. Jimmie married Minnie Jackson, a second grade teacher at Double Oaks School who was educated at Winston-Salem Teachers College in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and at Columbia University, around 1940. He began to dream about a “country club” for African Americans -- one he could patronize himself.²

In July 1944, the McKees purchased a home at 921 Beatties Ford Road to fulfill Jimmie’s dream. The home, built in the 1910s, was a two-story residence with seven bedrooms. The renovated home opened as the Excelsior Club, the first African American nightclub in Charlotte, in September 1944. The original Excelsior could seat 75 people and featured a small bar. The club went through several transformations over the years, the most significant being a substantial remodel and expansion in 1952, thought to have been designed by McKee himself. The 1952 expansion and renovation included the Excelsior’s distinctive, Art Modern exterior design and ziggurat-style exterior. The club had a ballroom downstairs and featured carpeting and wood-paneled walls throughout. By 1984, the club had two banquet and meeting rooms and could accommodate 300 people.³ 

The physical building was not the only thing that changed over the years. Beginning as an elite social club for Charlotte’s African American middle class, the club evolved into a hub for entertainment, local politics, and philanthropy and was considered the premier nightclub for African Americans in the Southeast. The McKees shared a love for music that was reflected in the Excelsior; prominent musicians, including Louis Armstrong, James Brown, Sam Cooke, and Nat “King” Cole, played the club. The couple also supported the launch of WBIV, a local African American radio station. The station’s star? “Genial Gene” Potts, who got his start as an MC at the Excelsior. The club became a political hub in 1946, when a white Democratic candidate for Sheriff canvassed at the club and won his election. Other politicians who visited the Excelsior included Bill Clinton, who campaigned there in 1992.⁴

In addition to hosting social clubs, civic clubs, fraternities, and sororities with their own philanthropic endeavors, Jimmie McKee and Dr. Emery L. Rann founded the 100 Club in 1965. The club was comprised of several Excelsior Club members who raised thousands of dollars for nearby Johnson C. Smith University. Outside of the Excelsior, the McKees gave generously to their church, First Baptist Church, and to organizations such as the NAACP and YMCA. McKee personally sponsored membership for any boy who wanted to join the YMCA club in the 1940s. The McKees also established a local nursery and kindergarten, McKee’s Day Nursery and Kindergarten.⁵

The Excelsior Club celebrated its 40th anniversary in 1984. McKee died in 1985, and Minnie McKee died in 2002.⁶

McKee sold the club  just before his death. Currently, the Excelsior Club is in disrepair and is in danger of being demolished. It was named one of  the 11 most endangered historic places for 2019 by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.⁷

Essay by Brandie K. Ragghianti, 2019

Notes

1. Alma D. Green, 1963-1964 Green Book, 57; Green, 1966-1967 Green Book, 57; Brandon Lunsford, “The History of the Excelsior Club,” CLTURE, October 18, 2018, acessed from https://clture.org/excelsior-club/; Dr. William H. Huffman and Thomas W. Hanchett, “The Excelsior Club” [report], Historic West End Charlotte NC, September 4, 1985 accessed from https://westendclt.com/files/2019/09/Excelsior-Club-SR.pdf; Johnson C. Smith University, Excelsior: 40 Years, 1944-1984 (Charlotte, NC: Johnson C. Smith University, 1984), accessed from https://drive.google.com/file/d/1M24RW8Sep9WmCTP0WVXeWhoDnxtJdCaa/view; Tom Hanchett, “1607 Oaklawn,” McCrorey Heights, accessed from https://mccrorey.historysouth.org/1607-oaklawn/.
2. The country clubs where Jimmie McKee worked primarily served white customers; 1920 United States Census, Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, NC, digital images s.v. "James Mckey,” accessed from www.ancestry.com; 1930 United States Census, Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, NC, digital images s.v. "James Mckee,” accessed from www.ancestry.com; 1940 United States Census, Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, NC, digital images s.v. "James Mckey,” accessed from www.ancestry.com; James Robert McKee, July 25, 1985, Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Death Indexes, 1908-2004, accessed from www.ancestry.com; James Robert McKee, Charlotte, North Carolina, U.S. WWII Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947, accessed from www.ancestry.com; James Robert McKee, December 16, 1912 - July 25, 1985, U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Present, accessed from www.ancestry.com; James Robert McKee, July 29, 1985, Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, North Carolina Deaths, 1931-1994, accessed from https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FGH4-PQZ; The T.C. Alumni Bulletin, May 1944, Winston-Salem Teachers College, p. 4, accessed from http://cdm17140.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p17140…; Lunsford, “The History of the Excelsior Club;” Huffman and Hanchett, “The Excelsior Club;” Johnson C. Smith University, Excelsior: 40 Years; Hanchett, “106 Oaklawn.” 
3. Huffman and Hanchett, “The Excelsior Club;” Hanchett, “106 Oaklawn;” Lunsford, “The History of the Excelsior Club;” Johnson C. Smith University, Excelsior: 40 Years.
4. Lunsford, “The History of the Excelsior Club;” Huffman and Hanchett, “The Excelsior Club;” Johnson C. Smith University, Excelsior: 40 Years; Hanchett, “106 Oaklawn.”
5. Lunsford, “The History of the Excelsior Club;” Huffman and Hanchett, “The Excelsior Club;” Johnson C. Smith University, Excelsior: 40 Years; Hanchett, “106 Oaklawn;” Hill’s Charlotte (Mecklenburg County, N.C.) City Directory 1963 (Richmond, VA: Hill Directory Company Publishers), alphabetical listing, p. 670, classified directory, pp. 222, 321.
6. Johnson C. Smith University, Excelsior: 40 Years; James Robert McKee, July 29, 1985, Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, North Carolina Deaths, 1931-1994, accessed from https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FGH4-PQZ; Minnie Jackson McKee, July 19, 1912 - May 13, 2002, U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Present, accessed from www.ancestry.com. 
7. Lunsford, “The History of the Excelsior Club;” Huffman and Hanchett, “The Excelsior Club;” National Trust for Historic Preservation, “Discover America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places for 2019,” accessed from https://savingplaces.org/stories/11-most-endangered-historic-places-201…; Danielle Chemtob, “Historic Excelsior Club under contract again after other efforts have fallen through,” The Charlotte Observer, November 8, 2019, accessed from WBTV, https://www.wbtv.com/2019/11/09/historic-excelsior-club-under-contract-…. For additional information on this site, see: Johnson C. Smith University, “Collection: Charlotte’s Historic West End,” accessed from https://www.historypin.org/en/charlotte-s-historic-west-end/. Primary sources related to the Excelsior Club and James McKee may be found at UNC Charlotte (James “Jimmie” McKee Papers, https://findingaids.uncc.edu/repositories/4/resources/164) and the Inez Parker Moore Archives at Johnson C. Smith University (https://jcsu.libguides.com/c.php?g=831463&p=5935857).