Embedded Files
"Education begets education."
- One of Elmer Garinger's favorite axioms.
Prior to World War II, Charlotte-area options for white students included the private Davidson and Queens colleges; Black students could attend the private Johnson C. Smith University.
As the book Charlotte and UNC Charlotte: Growing Up Together explains, after the war and the proliferation of the G.I. Bill, enrollment demands led to the development of 14 temporary extension centers of the UNC system in 1946, a prelude to the community college system.
The Charlotte Center, a night school for white students, was located in the basement of Central High School. One of the Central math teachers, Bonnie Cone, taught a night class and ran testing at the center, taking over as director in year two. Though most of the centers closed after three years, Dr. Garinger, Cone, and other Charlotte leaders wanted to keep the Central location open.
In 1949, the N.C. legislature established a community college system and the Charlotte Center administration was turned over to Charlotte City Schools under Dr. Garinger's leadership. Carver College, a similar school for African Americans, was established at Second Ward High School. Later, Charlotte College moved to its current location in Northeast Charlotte and gained four-year status. Carver merged with the Central Industrial Education Center and became part of the Central Piedmont Community College system.
As a Mecklenburg delegate to the N.C. House of Representatives, Garinger helped Charlotte College become a four-year institution and part of the UNC system in 1965.
The 1951 senior class at Carver College dedicated their yearbook, The Buck, to Superintendent Garinger, for his "devotion to education, his striving for an integrated American culture and his herculean strides in education."
Carver College was housed at Second Ward High School, Charlotte's first high school for African Americans. It and six other Black schools were closed during integration, and Second Ward was demolished in the early 1970s.
Charlotte College president Bonnie Cone and Elmer Garinger (center) attended the groundbreaking for Charlotte College on November 21, 1960.
This video contains excerpts from a 1961 15-minute film called "Documenting the Opening of Charlotte College" housed in the Office of Public Information and Publications Records at UNC Charlotte. Dr. Elmer Garinger appears during an apparent Board of Trustees meeting at time stamp 1:21. The footage is silent until 1:30, where a Garinger High School graduate and sophomore at Charlotte College talks about the benefits of the new campus.
Fun Fact
Fun Fact
Dr. Garinger wanted to build Charlotte College on extra land at the Myers Park High School campus, which opened in 1951. Cone disagreed, preferring the present-day Northeast Charlotte site that offered extra land for expansion and access to major thoroughfares.
The Cone Connection
The Cone Connection
Dr. Garinger was secretary of the Board of Trustees of Charlotte College and helped Bonnie Cone secure a permanent space for N.C. 49 (University City Boulevard). The Garinger academic building on the campus of UNC Charlotte is named for him.
The two went way back to Central High.
"I've never been challenged so much in my life. Central was one of the outstanding schools in the state, and Dr. Garinger set the tone," Cone said in a 1962 interview published in The Charlotte Observer.
"Maybe you had a problem that would have seemed minor to other principals, but you could go to him. As you talked, you could see the solution. You thought it came from yourself, but you had a mastermind behind you."
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In these short audio clips, Bonnie Cone discusses working with Dr. Garinger. The interviews were conducted in December 1987 by Ed Perzel as part of an oral history project about Charlotte College and the early days of UNC Charlotte.
Cone2.m4aClip 1 - Meeting Dr. Garinger and her life-changing decision to work at Central High instead of Kannapolis.
Cone Clip 1 - 3:18:24, 12.35 PM.mp3Clip 2 - Coming back to Central after teaching at Duke University during World War II.
J. Murrey Atkins Library Special Collections & University Archives, University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
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