The birth of Charlotte’s Excelsior Club came when its founder, James Robert McKee, was working as a head mail clerk in 1939.

McKee also tended bar at various restaurants in the Queen City. That experience helped McKee hatch the idea to open Charlotte’s first nightclub for African Americans. In 1944, McKee realized his dream when Excelsior Club opened its doors to guests.

Ken Koontz, a former owner of Excelsior Club in the 1980s, told WCNC Charlotte anchor and reporter Jane Monreal that McKee started Excelsior Club as a way to give Black Charlotteans a place to belong.

“The Black experience, was, if you were a teacher or principal or preacher or supervisor, even on your job, even if it may have been an industry somewhere, you were considered rich, high end,” Koontz said. “And people like that couldn’t go to a country club.”