Meck Dec 250 Exhibit Explores Nuanced History, Impact of Debated Document

If you hear cannons erupt in the Uptown area on Tuesday afternoon, a second revolution isn’t underway. The noise is coming from the official celebration of the Meck Dec 250, marking 250 years since the reported signing of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence. 

Allegedly signed on May 20, 1775, predating the national Declaration of Independence that would be signed by the country’s forefathers during the following summer, the “Meck Dec” has become an important symbol in Charlotte and one of North Carolina’s claims to fame.

Sparse historical records have prompted fierce debates over whether the Declaration is reality or myth, as noted in this 2021 Queen City Nerve op-ed written by Pamela Grundy. Nevertheless, it has formed a prominent component of Charlotte’s identity for more than 150 years. 

About 5 miles east of where Tuesday’s official Meck Dec 250 celebrations took place, on property once occupied by reported Meck Dec signer Hezekiah Alexander, the Charlotte Museum of History opened its new Meck Dec 250 exhibit. 

The exhibit includes original documents and artifacts from the Revolutionary Period, modern Meck Dec memorabilia and an interactive diorama of Charlotte in 1775. It also documents the many ways that Charlotteans have observed and celebrated Meck Dec Day over the years, from visits by presidents Taft, Wilson, Eisenhower and Ford to commemorative milk cartons and neckties. 

On major anniversaries like 1875 and 1975, tens of thousands of Charlotteans packed the streets for parades, reenactments, fireworks and public plays, according to the museum. Alongside dozens of souvenir Meck Dec items, the museum’s new exhibit features never-before-seen footage from the 1975 celebrations and original musical recordings from Hornet’s Nest, a public play held in Uptown on May 19, 1975.

“In many ways, Charlotte was at the center of Revolutionary activity, with locals proclaiming this region free and independent of Great Britain in May 1775, more than a full year before the national Declaration of Independence in July 1776,” said Nolan Dahm, exhibits manager at the Charlotte Museum of History and curator of the Meck Dec 250 exhibit. “This exhibit explores the 250-year history of the Meck Dec and its impact on the Queen City.”

As pointed out by Grundy, author of Legacy: Three Centuries of Black History in Charlotte, North Carolina — a book that stemmed from her Black History of Charlotte series published in Queen City Nerve — it’s important to note how that history comes with its share of nuance and hypocrisy. 

“Promoters of the Meck Dec generally focus on the signers’ independent spirit, distrust of authority and ‘firm belief that all men were equal,’” Grundy wrote in 2021. “Chronicler J.B. Alexander set this tone in 1902, writing that Mecklenburg County ‘was populated with a race of people’ who ‘had been taught that liberty and independence were necessary to achieve the highest aims in life.’

“What Alexander failed to mention, and what most accounts of the Meck Dec either leave out or gloss over, is that many of the signers were actively engaged in denying liberty and independence to other human beings — the men and women of African descent whom they had enslaved,” Grundy continued. 

“Men such as John Davidson, Thomas Polk and Hezekiah Alexander built fortunes by exploiting enslaved labor. They justified this practice with the claim that Africans and their descendants were a ‘lesser’ race of people than the white Europeans who enslaved them. The legacy of those actions and ideas remains with us today.”

Dahm told Queen City Nerve he was inspired by reading Grundy’s 2021 op-ed while compiling research and curating the Meck Dec 250 exhibit. 

“She emphasized that the Meck Dec has been used, critiqued and celebrated by various groups over time and that the ideals of freedom and liberty did not apply to most Charlotteans in 1775,” Dahm said of Grundy’s writing. 

“In our new exhibit at Charlotte Museum of History, we include some of the many ways that the Meck Dec has been both celebrated and employed as a political symbol over the years: everything from North Carolina’s decision to secede from the Union in 1861 to Civil Rights protests in the 1960s,” he continued. “As important and interesting as this history is, we think it is just as important for this exhibit to inspire conversations about what this document means today and how it can be an inspiration for our region.” 

The museum’s willingness to explore the nuance of the Meck Dec’s legacy speaks to a point made Charlotte City Council member and Mayor Pro Tem Dante Anderson at a meeting on Monday.

While discussing financial partners in the upcoming Fiscal Year 2026 budget, Anderson suggested that the city allocate money to the museum, which is regularly left off the list of artistic and cultural institutions that receive funds annually through the city’s operating budget.

“Of any museum entity within the city of Charlotte, we have some wonderful ones, but this one alone does so much outreach to the African-American, Latino, Asian, multicultural community and supports their efforts in terms of events and things they want to do to bring the community together.”

Listen: Nooze Hounds: Charlotte Museum of History President & CEO Terri White (2022)

City staff will come back in front of council on June 2 to present any new proposals for financial partnerships, which could include the Charlotte Museum of History based on Monday’s recommendations from Anderson and District 5 rep Marjorie Molina, before the final budget vote on June 9.

The Meck Dec 250 exhibit, which opened today, will run through March 2026 and is included in the museum’s regular ticket price. On May 24, the museum will offer special Meck Dec-themed tours of the 1774 Rock House where Hezekiah Alexander once lived with his family every hour from 11:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Those tours are also included in regular admission.