Description

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Community Relations Committee was first established by Mayor James Saxon Smith as the Mayor's Friendly Relationship Committee in 1960 in response to sit-ins at lunch counters led by Johnson C. Smith students in uptown Charlotte on February 12, 1960. The committee was chaired by John R. Cunningham, director of the Presbyterian Foundation and retired president of Davidson College. James F. Wertz, pastor of St. Paul's Baptist Church, served as vice chair.