Home / Full timeline / Harvey Gantt, the former Black American mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina, wins his state’s Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate.
Harvey Gantt, the former Black American mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina, wins his state’s Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate.
1990 (Jun 6)
Harvey Gantt, the former Black American mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina, won his state's Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate. Gantt gained 272,576 votes (57 percent) to defeat Michael Easley, a county district attorney. Easley received 206,397 votes (43 percent) with 99 percent of the state's precincts reporting. Gantt, a forty-seven-year-old architect, was the first Black in North Carolina to receive the Democratic nomination for U.S. senator. In 1963, he became the first Black student to enroll in Clemson University in South Carolina and was the first Black mayor of Charlotte Of his nomination Gantt remarked, "There's a new day in North Carolina. This is a day where people are judged by what they can do and not by the color of their skin."
References:
- • Hornsby, Alton. Chronology of African-American History: Significant Events and People from 1619 to the Present. Detroit: Gale Research, 1995.