James Robert McKee was an American nightclub owner.

In 1939, McKee married Minnie Jackson and was working as the head mail clerk with Horton Motor Lines. He began tending bar at various restaurants around Charlotte, where he got the idea to start the Excelsior Club — the first nightclub for African Americans. 

In 1944 in Charlotte, North Carolina, McKee’s dream became a reality when he bought a house on Beatties Ford Road, complete with a dining room, banquet room as well as a bar. The club became a favorite place for civil rights activists to meet during the 1950s and 1960s and hosted many famous musicians, including Nat King Cole and local player Wilbert Harrison, who started out at the Excelsior Club before rising to national fame. The club became the leading private black social club in the Southeast and the largest on the East Coast.

By 2019, the property was named one of the nation’s 11 most endangered historic places by the  National Trust for Historic Preservation.

To ensure it will serve future generations, Kenwood Investments purchased the Club property in January 2020. The Sonoma, Calif., developer intends to restore the Club to its historic place in Charlotte and, over the next two months, will build what CEO Darius Anderson called a “dream team” of Black architects to develop concepts for the remodeling of the existing Excelsior Club  facilities. That will include the design of a boutique hotel to be constructed on the property. Kenwood also is seeking equally creative Black interior designers for the project.

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