CHARLOTTE, N.C. — As the search for an interim Charlotte mayor heats up, the president of the NAACP Charlotte-Mecklenburg Branch is making her position clear and issuing a direct warning to City Council members ahead of their appointment vote.

Corine Mack released a statement on May 11 through the NAACP’s Facebook, responding to lobbying efforts by white candidates for the interim seat left by Mayor Vi Lyles. This statement after former Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts announced she is “willing” to serve as interim mayor following Lyles’ decision to step down June 30. 

“It is seriously disturbing for white folks to be lobbying to be the interim Mayor in Charlotte,” the NAACP said in a statement. “Our Mayor who recently resigned is a Black woman who is a registered Democrat.”

RELATED: ‘Significant moment’: Reactions from officials pour in after Mayor Vi Lyles announces her resignation

Mack pointed to the broader national landscape as the context for its concern.

“While Black representation is being undermined and stripped nationwide, white folks are either tone deaf or worse — self-centered,” the statement read. “It’s not about YOU!”

She emphasized that Black voters in Charlotte have been deliberate in their choices at the ballot box.

“In Charlotte, Black voters have been intentional about having Black representation,” the statement said.

RELATED: Who fills Mayor Vi Lyles’ seat? Council has less than two months to decide

Mack also issued a direct warning to City Council members, who are tasked with selecting Lyles’ interim replacement.

“If the City Council votes a non-Black person in as interim Mayor again, voters will hold you accountable next year,” the NAACP said.

After the response received mixed reviews, Mack posted on her personal Facebook page, saying that white commenters are upset about the original statement and that she finds that reaction telling and somewhat hypocritical.

“On our NAACP Charlotte-Mecklenburg Branch page, white people are losing their minds in defense of Charlotte having the right to have a white Mayor. Anyone can run next year! This year, the City Council will elect the interim Mayor.

It is very interesting to watch some white people in a frenzy about Black people loving and supporting Black people. Meanwhile,  they create movements and spaces solely for white people all of the time.

The outrage must be about any Black person who dares to have an independent thought and opinion.

White people created race and racism. But, they continue to play the victim and create fake narratives. Everything in this country is predicated on race…white people did that!

I won’t be silenced! In the meantime, I’m praying for this country.”

WCNC Charlotte spoke with Mack about the statement, who was quick to clarify its origins.

“The statement is my personal statement, it’s not the NAACP branch statement,” Mack said. “It’s my statement as the president of the branch.”

Mack said she was not surprised by the backlash, pointing to the current national climate as the driving force behind her position.

“All over the country, Black representation is being stripped,” she said, citing ongoing lawsuits in Louisiana and Alabama over representation, as well as recent efforts she said targeted Rep. Jim Clyburn’s congressional seat in South Carolina’s 6th District. “Because of that, my position is it would not be a good look for us to give a seat that originally was a Black woman’s seat, that we duly elected in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg area, to a white person at this time.”

Mack acknowledged that the City Council has previously appointed white interim mayors, including Patsy Kinsey and Dan Clodfelter, and said she had no objection at the time.

“I was the president then. I had no problem with it,” she said. “But we’re in a very specific time right now in this country, a time where Black representation is being stripped every single day throughout the country.”

Mack was also direct in pushing back on the suggestion that her stance was aimed at any one candidate.

“This was not about Jennifer Roberts or any particular person,” she clarified. “I’m simply saying, because of the climate we’re in, let’s do what is correct, which is … ensure that we put a Black person in that particular seat. There are many qualified Black people. I’m disturbed that there’s a question about whether or not a Black person is qualified.”

She also aimed at the white candidates, she said, who have lobbied for the seat without speaking out on broader racial equity issues.

“I don’t see any of those very same people who are lobbying to be the mayor here saying anything about the racism that we’re enduring as Black people, not one of them,” Mack said. “I don’t see any of them outraged about the fact that Black representation is being stripped all over this country. So it’s interesting to me that you want to lobby to get a seat that a Black person is leaving, but not once have you said anything about Black representation being stripped from us all over this country.”

Mack closed by reiterating her core message to Charlotte’s City Council.

One person now being discussed publicly as a possible interim mayor, former Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts. She tells WCNC she wasn’t actively seeking the job, but says she’s been approached by several people asking her to step in.

“I started hearing from a lot of people who thought that I would be a good choice. They said, you’ve got the experience. You’ve been there. It would be a seamless transition,” Roberts said.

Roberts says she would not run again and claims she’s only offering to serve short-term. When asked about the NAACP post, she said she understands where the frustration is coming from.

“I understand the pain that the Black community is feeling. I regret that some people are looking just at racial representation. I do feel that. People of all races can advocate for others, but at the same time, representation does matter,” she said.

Roberts said if she were chosen, she would work to ensure Black communities are heard and points to her past involvement in historically Black neighborhoods.

“I show up everywhere. I go to churches on the west side of Charlotte. I go to community meetings at Johnson C. Smith. I go listen to the West Boulevard, community groups. I am all over the city. People know that I show up,” she said.

Now, the decision goes back to city council with pressure coming from multiple sides.

Lyles is Charlotte’s first Black female mayor and the city’s second-longest serving mayor. She won reelection in 2025 but announced she would step down early to spend more time with her grandchildren.

RELATED: ‘Honor of my life’: Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles announces she will resign from office

Charlotte City Council has until June 30 to appoint an interim mayor to serve out the remaining roughly year and a half of her term. Any appointee must be a registered Democrat.

Councilman Mitchell has said the body is unlikely to publicly outline its selection process until the first week of June.

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