Gantt, Watt debut The Post’s Black History Month series

FURMAN UNIVERSITY

Former Charlotte Mayor and U.S. Senate candidate Harvey Gantt, The Post’s inaugural Newsmaker of the Year in 1990, will talk politics and civic life as part of The Post’s first Legends & Legacy conversation Feb. 6 at Allegra Westbrooks Regional Library.

It’s one thing to read about Black history or watch a documentary. It’s another to actually share a space with people who made it happen.

The Post is kicking off Black History Month with a pair of political and professional heavyweights in a public gathering as part of our celebration. 

Former Charlotte Mayor Harvey Gantt and Federal Housing Finance Agency chief Mel Watt will be the focus of the inaugural Legends & Legacy conversations Feb. 6 at Allegra Westbrooks Regional Library. The conversation will start at 6 p.m.

In addition to Gantt and Watt, weekly conversations will include Mecklenburg County Commissioner and former former school board member Arthur Griffin  (Feb. 13), former television and radio news broadcasters Ken Koontz and Beatrice Thompson (Feb. 20) and Dorothy Counts-Scoggins, the first Black student to desegregate the former Central High School (Feb. 27). 

You can register for any – or every – conversation here.

Gantt, a native of Charleston, South Carolina, studied architecture at Iowa State University and in 1963 became the first Black student to matriculate at Clemson University. He moved to Charlotte and in 1971 co-founded Gantt Huberman Architects with Jeff Huberman, and their firm designed buildings across Charlotte, including the Transportation Center, TransAmerica Square, ImaginOn, and Dorothy Yancy Science Center at Johnson C. Smith University.

Gantt was elected to Charlotte City Council in 1974 as district representation replaced the at-large system that limited Black representation. He was elected mayor nine years later, a first for the city. He was again elected in 1985. In 1990, Gantt lost a close U.S. Senate race to incumbent Jesse Helms, which led to Gantt earning the inaugural Post Newsmaker of the Year. 

Watt, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency from 2014-19 as an appointee of President Barack Obama, was the first Black person to represent Charlotte in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1993-2014. Watt and Eva Clayton, a JCSU graduate who was also elected in 1992, were the first Black lawmakers to represent the state since 1901. 

Watt was also the first North Carolina lawmaker to chair the Congressional Black Caucus, which he did from 2005-06. 

A Charlotte native, Watt served a single term as a state senator (1985-87) and was Gantt’s campaign manager for mayor and later the Senate. Watt graduated all-Black York Road High School and was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of UNC Chapel Hill in 1967. 

In his role with the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Watt was responsible for administration and oversight for the Federal Housing Administration, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac.

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