Retrieving What Was Lost, Building New Beginnings

In 1974, AAAS colleague and English professor Mary Harper asked Maxwell to help establish an Afro-American Cultural and Service Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, to counter the negative effects of urban renewal and school closings on Black children. This chapter recounts how Maxwell and trusted students like Elaine Nichols, colleagues such as Herman Thomas, volunteers and patrons like Mary Maxwell (no relation) and Loonis McGlohon, and staff, including executive director Shirley Farrar, overcame funding limitations to transform Harper’s proposal into a thriving arts center. In 1980, Maxwell unsuccessfully ran for a seat in the North Carolina House of Representatives. As the first local Black woman to make serious inroads with her candidacy after winning in the Democratic primary, Maxwell’s campaign promoted Black Studies’ tenets of community empowerment, educational equity, and cultural advocacy. By the early 1980s, the expansion-minded center called on Maxwell to help secure the historic Little Rock Church building.