Mimesis at the Movies: Charlotte Seven
They made a documentary about her work!
What happens when lost history is uncovered?
Charlotte Seven, a new documentary directed by Billy Price and produced by Cowboy Collective, reveals the impact. The film explores the rediscovery of long-overlooked African American history in Charlotte, North Carolina, particularly the hidden legacies of Black churches and burial grounds displaced by urban development. For the past four years, the Rev. Dr. Julia Robinson Moore, a preacher, peacebuilder, and advocate, has led a diverse team of architects, students, and historians on a powerful mission: to restore dignity to forgotten African American burial grounds in Charlotte.
“The enslaved burial grounds are still there. They're still neglected and they are sort of hidden in plain sight,” says Dr. Robinson Moore, a professor of African-American Religion at UNC Charlotte. As the director of the Preserving Sacred Spaces Initiative (PSSI) at UNC Charlotte, Dr. Moore provides substantive steps toward memorializing these historic sites, recognizing them as essential to understanding the complexities of Black and white race relations in the South. Born from Dr. Moore’s research on the role of the Presbyterian Church in Charlotte’s racial history, PSSI goes beyond restoration: it fosters reconciliation. Filmed verité style over four years, this documentary captures the initiative’s evolution in real time, following the emotional and deeply personal journeys of those working to reclaim these sacred spaces. Through intimate storytelling and observational footage, Charlotte Seven reveals the profound impact of uncovering and confronting forgotten history.
Find out more about the film.
Watch the film (23min) on Vimeo.
Discussion and Q&A with
Rev. Dr. Julia Robinson Moore
Rev. Dr. Julia Robinson Moore is an ordained Presbyterian minister in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and serves as a Minister-At-Large in the Presbytery of Charlotte. Moore is also an Associate Professor of Religion at UNC Charlotte. Her teaching and research center on African American religion, peacebuilding, and the work of French literary theorist René Girard. Her first book, Race, Religion, and the Pulpit: Reverend Robert L. Bradby and the Making of Urban Detroit (2015 and 2024), highlights the history of the first Black Baptist church in Detroit, MI, and the making of the city's black urban working class. As a scholar of African American religion and a minister within the Presbytery of Charlotte for over twenty-two years, Moore created a way for her research and ministry to directly enhance interracial relations within the Presbyterian communities she served through her non-profit organization, Moore Grace Ministries (MGM). Co-founded with her husband, Rev. Ricky D. Moore, Moore Grace Ministries promotes social well-being for the public good and stewards its signature project, Pathways for Peace (Pathways). Pathways is a community-based initiative that establishes strategic partnerships to support community sustainability through storytelling, education, memorialization, and the preservation of formerly enslaved burial grounds in Charlotte, NC.
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