Corine Mack – President of the Charlotte Mecklenburg NAACP
By John Burton
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Photo by T. Ortega Gaines
Corine Mack serves as the president of the Charlotte chapter of the NAACP. Mack, a native New Yorker, said she got her first taste of racism at the prestigious Dalton School in New York City. Following the incident, she heeded her mother’s advice to “always be an example of how blacks are, showing them you are a person of dignity and respect.”
Mack’s parents set an example of community service that planted the seeds for her activism. Her father would bring home crates of food from his longshoreman job to feed several families on their block. Her mother, a nurse, would give money to heroin addicts she suspected was waiting outside a local store to rob people. It was her parents’ influence that motivated her to continue their work in public service. “My main objective is to make lives better for those who feel they have no voice,” Mack said. “Dignity, respect, fairness, love, peace and economic stability for us all, not just the one percent,” Mack said.
Mack worked for the New York Transit System, where she was the first female shop steward and one of the first women to operate a train. In the Transport Workers Union 100, she was the first vice president of Rapid Transit Operations.
When she visited her daughter one Thanksgiving, Mack said she was charmed by the Queen City charm. She moved to Charlotte three months later. Soon after her arrival, Mack continued to advocate for others. She served as a volunteer for a series of nonprofits, including the Crisis Assistance Ministry, but it was the NAACP where she decided to plant herself. There, she worked on such issues as racism, LGTBQ+ and immigration rights. “I believe all people should be treated justly,” Mack said.
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