Charlie Dannelly, longtime state lawmaker and Charlotte educator, dies at 101
Charlie Dannelly, who represented District 38 in the North Carolina Senate for nearly 20 years, died Thursday at age 101, according to the Black Political Caucus of Charlotte-Mecklenburg.
Dannelly was born in 1924 and grew up during the Great Depression in Bishopville, S.C. He was a first lieutenant in the Korean War, where he earned a Bronze Star in the 892nd Airborne Division. Dannelly made more than 50 parachute jumps during the conflict, The Charlotte Observer previously reported.
After the war, he moved to Charlotte, where he graduated from Johnson C. Smith University.
“For more than half a century, Senator Dannelly carried the mission of JCSU into every space he entered,” JCSU said in a statement on Instagram Friday. “A noble leader dedicated to community service, he was a proud Golden Bull who championed educational access and opportunity for all.”
Dannelly began teaching in Charlotte’s then-segregated public school system in 1962, eventually serving as principal at University Park Elementary School in north Charlotte.
After the school district was integrated, Dannelly served as the first Black principal of Quail Hollow Junior High, located in what was a mostly white suburb of Charlotte.
Dannelly served for 12 years on Charlotte City Council, beginning in 1977, and retired from education in 1991. He was elected to the state Senate in 1994, where he served until 2013.
Charlotte City Council Member Malcolm Graham is also a South Carolina native who attended Johnson C. Smith. From 2005 to 2015, he served in the state Senate with Dannelly, who he said was the one to encourage him to run for the office.
“He understood there needed to be new voices, and he gave me the space I needed to be that new voice,” Graham told the Observer. “He stayed close enough to me in the Senate to keep me out of trouble but far enough away to allow me to be my own man.”
Graham said he and Dannelly would often share dinners together in Raleigh, and described him as a “very quiet individual that carried a very big stick.” He also said Dannelly was one of the “best dressers in Charlotte.”
When Dannelly left the Senate in 2013, Mac Everett, a former banking executive in Charlotte, called him “a giant among people who represented Charlotte.” In a statement to The Observer at the time, Everett said, “He was willing to listen to anybody who had something to say about an issue.”
Graham said Dannelly’s legacy lives on in today’s local political leaders, who, Graham said, Dannelly opened the door for.
“We recently lost Jesse Jackson, and like him, Charlie Dannelly is one of those icons that we are losing,” Graham said. “We’re losing these icons that have literally cleared the way for a new generation of leaders.”
This story was originally published February 27, 2026 at 1:27 PM with the headline "Charlie Dannelly, longtime state lawmaker and Charlotte educator, dies at 101."
