A Home for St. Michael & All Angels

Discriminatory housing practices have had a profound impact on Black congregations. In Charlotte, St. Michael & All Angels was at the heart of the prosperous and progressive Black neighborhood nicknamed “Brooklyn.” But with the advent of “urban renewal” in the 1950s, this downtown neighborhood was decimated. St. Michael & All Angels sold their property in 1968 and spent the next five and half decades searching for a permanent location.

From 1968 to 1984, the St. Michael’s congregation worshipped at the Chapel of Hope, a former all-white mill church in the rapidly-changing Optimist Park neighborhood, before moving to an available property near Johnson C. Smith University. That property, too, proved unsatisfactory. The congregation has finally arrived at the destination toward which they have been journeying; on May 21, 2022, St. Michael & All Angels broke ground for their new church building (pictured above).

The congregation of St. Michael & All Angels moves to Optimist Park in 1968.