Charlotte has grown from juvenile roots of prejudice into a modern tapestry with a myriad of cultures coloring the skyline, along with the people who stand by it. This change is fostered by the strength and determination of those who believed in a better future for the Queen City.
Bea Thompson, 59, a Charlotte native, lived through the social changes of the Civil Rights Era. She made Charlotte her family and dedicated her life to the community. “Ultimately, I gotta’ sleep with me,” she explained.
Desegregation led to her being the only black student at her school in seventh grade. An older student, her angel, deterred bullies from picking on his “Georgia Brown” her first year. “He helped me to understand over the years; don’t always judge everybody on one or two people,” she said.
Soon after, her family was forced out of their home in the Third Ward via urban renewal. “We came home from school one day and there was a note on every door,” she said. “They didn’t care where we moved or how we moved, but you got 30 days to move. Bulldozers will be coming.”
A realtor convinced the family to move into Yarbrough Park, a white neighborhood. “They comin’,” she quoted, “you better sell now. You’re not going to get anything for your house.” Known as ‘block busting’, realtors had the practice of convincing white families to sell their homes, claiming their properties would lose value if minorities moved into an area.
Thompson also saw her first burning cross in that neighborhood. “We saw this light in the sky and thought it was the sun going down,” she said. The cross was burning on the front lawn of a Native American family. The son was dating a white girl at South Mecklenburg High School.
“I watched that man sit on his front porch all night with a shotgun across his legs and a pistol in his hand, weeping,” she recalled.
This moment instilled in her a fear of what may happen and a drive to improve her community. “He looks like them. What are they going to do to us?” she asked.
Thompson took a CBS News internship in 1977, and three years later became Charlotte’s first African-American female anchor. “My commitment was to this community, because of the instances and occurrences in my life, and seeing what happened to people when they don’t have information,” she said.
During her career, Thompson focused on bringing topics to the air which otherwise may not have been covered and as a moral compass in the newsroom. She realized if she did not stop images that perpetuated stereotypes, no one else would.
She admits that sometimes her passion could be a hinderance. “Be careful in your words,” she said. “I work with words, and words have power.”
Learning that everything doesn’t have to be a battle, and to not take things personally was an important skill. Thompson said dealing with issues in a professional manner helped her survive in emotionally tough situations.
She found that ignorant people are often their own downfall. “Never argue with a fool, ‘cause you can’t win and they’ll pull you down to their level,” she said.
Currently, Thompson is the news and public affairs director for WBAV-CBS radio where she hosts her own talk show as well as appearing regularly on PBS Charlotte’s journalism round table show “Off the Record” with David Rhew. She explains, “there are no designated hitters and if you invite me to play ball, I’m going to play hard.”
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