Queen Dorothy Counts

​One of the many Queens of Charlotte was Dorothy Counts. She was “Ford Tough”, as she was one of the pioneers to integrate Charlotte Mecklenburg Public School System in 1957. Pictures captured her poise, fearlessness and bravery as she entered Harry Harding High School to mobs of white supremacist, young and old.  Under the passing of the Pearsall Plan in North Carolina she and four other black students attended various schools in Charlotte. Her father Herman Counts dropped Ms. Counts at the door where she was meet with mobs of attackers. She was spit on, had eggs thrown at her and was pushed and shoved. Her father told her to keep her head up high and these images will stay with us as a legacy of the fortitude of Black Women. 

After four days, her father made this statement to the press. “It is with compassion for our native land and love for our daughter Dorothy that we withdraw her as a student at Harding High School. As long as we felt she could be protected from bodily injury and insults within the school's walls and upon the school premises, we were willing to grant her desire to study at Harding.”

She will forever be a brave Queen of Charlotte.