✊🏾 BHM 2026 Notables by QCT | Post #07 Healing, Diplomacy & Faith: Anchors of Uplift 🩺🌍✝️

 

✊🏾 BHM 2026 Notables by QCT | Post #07
Healing, Diplomacy & Faith: Anchors of Uplift 🩺🌍✝️

This Black History Month, we honor two visionary sons of the 1859 generation—builders of medicine, global service, and spiritual fortitude in the face of deep racial adversity:

• Dr. John Taylor “J. T.” Williams (1859–1924)
  • Born free in Cumberland County, NC, and educated at Myers Street School & Lincoln University
  • Among NC’s first Black physicians (Leonard Medical School, 1891); performed surgeries at Good Samaritan Hospital 🏥
  • Owned the Queen City Drug Store in Old Brooklyn (2nd Ward) and mentored Black medical talent
  • Served as Charlotte alderman, U.S. consul to Sierra Leone, and co-founded the Mecklenburg Investment Company
  • Rooted in Grace A.M.E. Zion and the thriving Myers Street community
  • Legacy lives on at J. T. Williams Middle School, carrying his name and mission

• Bishop George Wylie Clinton (1859–1921)
  • Born in Lancaster, SC; educated in Freedmen’s Bureau schools
  • Rose to lead the A.M.E. Zion Church from Salisbury, NC
  • Editor of The Star of Zion and leading church historian
  • Founded Clinton College in Rock Hill, SC—expanding access to Black higher learning
  • Vocal anti-lynching advocate and spiritual force against Jim Crow
  • His faith-infused leadership empowered generations of Black Carolinians

🎉 Explore their lives and legacy this February during the
👉🏾 28^th Annual QCT Charlotte Pilgrimage Tour^sm 2026
🎟️ Get tickets at: charlottepilgrimagetour.com

#BHM2026 #BlackCharlotte #JTWilliams #GeorgeWylieClinton #AMEZionLegacy #QCTHeritage #DiplomatsAndDoctors #CharlotteFaith #HiddenHistory #ClintonCollege #LeonardMedicalSchool #CharlotteTours #BuildersOfUplift

📚 Sources:

https://www.cmstory.org/exhibits/mecklenburg-people/john-williams
https://www.museumofthenewsouth.org/digital/historic-brooklyn/williams-grace-mic/
https://charlotteledger.substack.com/p/historical-heavyweights-a-19th-century
https://meckmed.org/wp-content/uploads/MCMS-History-Part-2-Combined-4.pdf
http://landmarkscommission.org/2016/12/15/mecklenburg-investment-company-building/
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/200218511/george-wylie-clinton
https://afamwilsonnc.com/2016/01/
https://umbrasearch.org/catalog?per_page=100&q=%22Clinton%2C+George+Wylie%2C+1859+1921%22&search_field=keyword&sort=creator_disp