By CLTure News
February 15, 2021
Earlier this month, Charlotte City Council unanimously decided to move forward with plans to rename several Charlotte streets previously named for Confederate soldiers, slave owners, and segregationists. On Sunday, the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture shared a petition to change Stonewall Street– a street named for Confederate general Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson– to Harvey B. Gantt Street.
Harvey Bernard Gantt, born in 1948 in Charleston, South Carolina, certainly has the accomplishments to deserve a street name in his honor. As the first Black mayor in Charlotte’s history, he was elected to two terms from 1983 to 1987. He was also the first African American to be admitted to Clemson University and received a degree in architecture and a master’s degree in city planning from MIT.
His architecture firm Gantt Huberman Architects– which he co-founded in 1971– was also responsible for many iconic buildings in the city, including ImaginOn, Charlotte Transportation Center, TransAmerica Square, Friendship Missionary Baptist Church, and the Johnson C. Smith University Science Center.
In 2009, the city of Charlotte honored Gantt by naming the four-story uptown home of the Afro-American Cultural Center the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture. And now, in 2021, the opportunity to further cement Gantt’s name and legacy with a street in uptown has presented itself to remember his achievements for years to come.
You can sign the petition here.
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