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Harvey Gantt

Visiting Professor 1999-2000 Architect, city planner, civil rights leader, and former mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina Chair, National Capital Planning Commission

The genius of Martin Luther King was his humanness. He cared about people genuinely, and he was just like you and me with fears and ambition and concerns, but he had this thing about him, this gift, this caring about society in such a way that he moved ordinary men and women… to do something, to being about positive change, and that’s a conviction that I moved forward from.
— Harvey Gantt

Background

Harvey Gantt is an architect, city planner, civil rights leader, and former mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina. Gantt was the first African American student to enroll in Clemson University, graduating with honors with a degree in architecture. In 1970, he earned a master’s degree in city planning from MIT.

Interests

Gantt’s research interests include urban design, planning, and policy; civil rights and politics, and he has been praised for his commitment to addressing the problems of inner cities using the insights of an architect and planner. In addition to an architecture practice characterized by its creation of memorable sites within cities, Gantt has an active career in activism and politics. He was elected to the city council and served from 1974 to 1983. From 1983 to 1987, Gantt served two terms as the first black mayor of Charlotte. In the 1990s, he ran two unsuccessful campaigns for the United States Senate against Jesse Helms. From 1995 to 2000, Gantt chaired the National Capital Planning Commission, the U.S. government’s central planning agency for federal land and buildings in the DC area. Under his leadership, the commission adopted a strategic plan for city monuments and selected sites on the National Mall for the Martin Luther King Memorial and the World War II Memorial.

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