Architect Harvey Gantt was the first AfricanAmerican elected mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina. A native of Charleston, South Carolina, Gantt was the first black student to enter Clemson University. Gantt, a Democrat, made two unsuccessful attempts to unseat Republican Senator Jesse Helms; once in 1990, and again in 1996. The 1990 campaign was widely viewed as one in which race was a significant factor. Helms, was known for his opposition to affirmative action, and Gantt sought to become the state's first black senator to Congress since Reconstruction.

Although often used by historians simply to designate the post-Reconstruction period, the term "New South" defines the late nineteenth-century program of regional industrialization and agricultural diversification. As can be seen on this button, the term continues to be used today.