On this episode of SouthBound we talk to Harvey Gantt, who has spent his whole life pushing against the boundaries of the South.
When he was still a high-school student, he organized a sit-in at a department store. He became the first black student at Clemson University, and the first black mayor of Charlotte. He lost two bruising elections for the U.S. Senate to Jesse Helms. And during nearly all that time, he was a working architect, designing homes, office buildings and public spaces that helped shape Charlotte and other cities. Not many people have changed the South the way Harvey Gantt has.
Show Notes:
A gallery of some of the homes he designed: http://www.ncmodernist.org/gantt.htm
The African-American arts and culture museum in Charlotte, which is named for Gantt: http://www.ganttcenter.org
The infamous "hands" ad that Jesse Helms ran against Gantt in the 1990 U.S. Senate election: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ap9HbMxfWyw
Producer Nick de la Canal
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