UNC-TV:A Colored School

Stepping gracefully up the steps in front of Second Ward High School, Margaret Alexander was the dream of many boys in her class and the inspiration for other girls. After she graduated from Second Ward, Margaret enrolled in North Carolina College for Negroes, now North Carolina Central University. She took business courses, and married Kelly Alexander (no relation) before she graduated from college. As most women did during the late 1940s, Margaret prepared for marriage and a family. Her business knowledge proved invaluable in the assistance she gave her husband in his fight to end segregation and win blacks equality and respect.

After college, while raising her two sons, Kelly Jr. and Alfred, she assisted her husband as his personal secretary and became active in the civil rights movement. Kelly, who eventually became chairman of the NAACP national board of directors, actively worked to desegregate educational, medical and other public facilities. As a result of Kelly and Margaret's role in civil rights, they became targets for threats, harassment and even violence. On November 22, 1965, a bomb on their front porch awoke them from their sleep. While no one in the family was injured, the front part of their house was destroyed.

More about the bombing and about the Alexanders' involvement in civil rights is available on the Around Charlotte Web site.

Her favorite memory of Second Ward is being the May Queen in 1942 and meeting Kelly, her husband, part of the photography crew that filmed the original footage of a day at Second Ward (the basis of A Colored School).

Margaret's two sons both run the family funeral business, and she and her sons still live in Charlotte. Standing as tall as she did the day she proceeded up the steps as the May Queen, she is still active in the NAACP and other advocacy groups, fighting for minority rights.