Milton Short oral history interview, 2004 March 22

H. Milton Short, Jr. recounts his six terms serving on Charlotte city council (1965-1979) in Charlotte, North Carolina and his involvement with the urban renewal program. He characterizes Charlotte's redevelopment program as very popular among Charlotte's citizens, including black residents of Brooklyn, also known as Second Ward, who were impacted the most by the program. This stands in contrast to most of the other interviews in this collection, many of which are conversations with former residents of Brooklyn. He describes the eminent domain process as compensating homeowners fairly for their property, and the urban renewal program in Charlotte as innovative and viewed as a model by other cities around the United States. Mr. Short explains that it was difficult to sell the land in Brooklyn because it had to go to public auction, so he worked to get the law changed to land could be sold more directly. Other topics include Mr. Short's family, the Great Depression, his experiences growing up in Atlanta, Georgia, and writing wills with the Air Corps during World War II.