Levine Museum of the New South

The Levine Museum of the New South, is a history museum located in Charlotte, North Carolina whose exhibits focus on life in the North Carolina Piedmont after the American Civil War. The museum includes temporary and permanent exhibits on a range of Southern-related topics.^[1] Founded in 1991 as the Museum of the New South, it was renamed after museum patron and Family Dollar founder Leon Levine in 2001,^[2] also the year the current facility at 7th and College Streets downtown opened.^[3]

Overview[]

The museum's permanent exhibit is called "Cotton Fields to Skyscrapers: Charlotte and the Carolina Piedmont in the New South", and features period displays that reflect regional history. The displays include a one-room tenant farmer's house, a cotton mill and mill house, an African-American hospital, an early Belk department store, and a civil-rights era lunch counter. Changing exhibits focus on local culture, art and history.^[4]

In March 2013, the Charlotte Museum of History announced plans to move its administrative offices to the Levine Museum.^[5]

In 2019, the museum had an exhibit "The Legacy of Lynching: Confronting Racial Terror in America", prepared in collaboration with the Equal Justice Initiative, who created the National Memorial for Peace and Justice.^[6]

Relocation was considered in 2020 because the site had no room for expansion and was worth $7.7 million according to county records. The COVID-19 pandemic was one reason for considering more virtual options.^[7] On June 16, 2021, the museum announced it would sell the downtown location and look for a new home. This news comes as the museum adds virtual activities such as the digital walking tour starting in August 2021. These changes come with the help of a $600,000 grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.^[3]