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Civil Rights Groundbreaker Speaks At Rochester Conference

Rochester Councilman Adam McFadden (L) and Harvey Gantt (R).
Randy Gorbman
/
WXXI News
Rochester Councilman Adam McFadden (L) and Harvey Gantt (R).

A well-known figure in the fight for civil rights is among those attending a Rochester based conference this week focusing on African American elected officials.  Harvey Gantt sees progress on issues impacting urban areas, but also notes that a lot of problems are still the same.

Gantt has been involved in some key moments in the struggle for civil rights. In 1963 he became the first African American student at Clemson University  in South Carolina; he was also the first black mayor of Charlotte North Carolina.

Gantt is an architect now, and with his firm recently being acquired by locally based Bergmann Associates, he was tapped to be one of the participants in this week's meeting of the National Black Caucus of Local Elected Officials in Rochester.

As he travels around the country, Gantt sees similarities among urban areas and particularly African Americans in the kinds of issues they are dealing with.

"What we are dealing with are people who sometimes have given up some hope about their ability to survive in this country, to be a meaningful part of the economy of the country, who are seeing their children not getting a fair shake in terms of public education. "

Gantt says this caucus is a good way for black elected officials to compare notes, something that the Caucus president, Rochester Councilman Adam McFadden echoes.

McFadden says there has been an increase nationwide in the number of black elected officials, but he says that doesn't mean they have necessarily been able to effect the kinds of changes that are needed.

"To say that we're represented is one thing, to say that we have the authority and power to actually move the line of some of the disparities that we see is another conversation. In order to move those lines you have to have other people who are not black elected officials helping to move the line, it can't just be black elected officials.”

Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren will also be addressing the conference on Friday.

Randy Gorbman is WXXI's director of news and public affairs. Randy manages the day-to-day operations of WXXI News on radio, television, and online.