The Junior League of Charlotte — Old School Organization With New School Ideas

For 95 years, The Junior League of Charlotte, Inc. (JLC) has been front and center of our city’s most complex problems. JLC women are trained to identify the root cause of the issue and to convene key stakeholders to collaborate and implement sustainable solutions. They help change the landscape of the community for years to come. The JLC and its members have played a key role in providing vaccinations for children, educating for healthy food for families, securing the right to vote for women, establishing museums for children, and supporting victims of domestic violence, human trafficking, and cyber bullying.

While working on some of the most pressing issues, the JLC has a reputation of being filled with high-society white women who want to feel good about themselves by helping others. Like many organizations in our country that was true for years. For decades, Women of Color were not allowed to become members of the JLC. As women have evolved, so has the Junior League. Yet in 2020, many people still view the Junior League the way it was depicted in the movie The Help.

The JLC leadership changes on June 1. This year this transition happened during the COVID-19 pandemic and within days of George Floyd’s murder and protests in Charlotte and across the world. During this time, the JLC welcomed its fifth Black president, Charlitta Hatch.

Charlitta has been part of the Junior League for 13 years. She says “My League training has helped me to find and develop my voice and learn how to advocate for myself and others. As I think about the work that the Junior League has done in my community over the last 95 years, I felt proud to step into the role of President.” 

She knew she would be stepping into this role since 2018. However, she never expected her time to come during a pandemic and a renewed push for social justice. She says “I felt nervous about how to authentically lead the organization and be a voice in the community during this time.”She says she ironically finds inspiration from a quote from The Help to keep showing up every day. In the movie, Viola Davis’ character, Abileen Clark describes the death of her son to Junior League member, Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan saying, “On the anniversary of his death, every year I can’t breathe, but to y’all it’s just another day of bridge. You stop it, everything I wrote, he wrote, everything he was gonna die with him.” Charlitta says “As a Black female leader of a predominantly white organization, it is my League training that has prepared me to help our members engage in crucial, courageous, and uncomfortable conversations. It is my League training that has afforded me the opportunity to represent the voice of nearly 1600 dynamic and diverse women in our community. It is my League training that has given me the privilege to respond to this urgent community outcry while still advancing the needs of the children in our community.”