Charlotte's relentless disruptor
Plus: Top news of the week—Council signals support for I-77 plan pause; American Airlines' CLT lease negotiations; High-end steakhouse beef incoming?; Commissioner chair rejects Atrium board nominees
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Reginald Hawkins: How this dentist, minister and political insurgent drove desegregation from Charlotte’s West End to the governor’s race
Editor’s note: You see their names on street signs or parks, but who were some of the big-name people from decades ago who shaped Charlotte? They have fascinating stories, and for the next few Saturdays, we’re sharing them with you.
by John Short
Reginald Hawkins’ presence was often announced by the low hum of his silver-gray Cadillac de Ville. In the 1960s, Hawkins treated this vehicle as a rolling command center, a gleaming symbol of Black professional success that he drove pointedly through both the disenfranchised streets of the West End and the segregated corporate thoroughfares of downtown Charlotte.
For Hawkins, the Cadillac was a declaration of economic independence — a daily reminder to the Southern establishment that he was a man who didn’t need their permission, their “gradualism” or their money to thrive.
Hawkins would become one of the most formidable disruptors in Charlotte’s history. As a dentist, minister and political firebrand, he spearheaded the landmark efforts to desegregate local hospitals, schools and public facilities, brashly rejecting the establishment’s “crumbs of tokenism” in favor of drastic systemic change. By the time he became the first Black man to run for governor of North Carolina in 1968, Hawkins had widened the city’s aperture of what was possible, forcing a white establishment to prioritize justice over a carefully polished public image.
Reginald Hawkins was born on Nov. 11, 1923, in the coastal N.C. community of Beaufort. His father worked for the U.S. Bureau of the Interior, conducting ecological surveys, a distinguished federal position rarely held by an African American during the Jim Crow era.
After graduating from high school in Beaufort, Hawkins moved to Charlotte in the fall of 1941 to attend Johnson C. Smith University on the city’s West Side. “Hawk,” as he became known to his peers, was a campus polymath: He joined the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity and excelled in boxing, wrestling and football. Crucially, he also began organizing his fellow students around local causes, marking his first foray into the fight for social justice.
That activism found an early target in the early 1940s. A Pittsburgh journalist named Trezzvant Anderson had launched a campaign to pressure post offices nationwide to hire Black letter carriers, demanding compliance with President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s executive order ending segregated hiring in the federal government. Hawkins worked alongside Anderson, mobilizing student protesters to demonstrate at the downtown Charlotte Post Office.
Following his graduation from JCSU in 1943, Hawkins enlisted in the U.S. Army during World War II before enrolling in Howard University’s dental school in 1944. (He would later return to the military, achieving the rank of captain in the U.S. Army Dental Corps during the Korean War.)
Washington, D.C., was the epicenter of a burgeoning civil rights movement, and Hawkins immersed himself in it. He attended seminars, joined pickets and participated in sit-ins, studying firsthand how organized, direct action could dismantle entrenched systems. The relationships he forged at Howard would prove vital to his future work back in North Carolina.
Returning to Charlotte in 1948 with his dental degree, Hawkins opened his practice and wholly dedicated himself to the civil rights movement. The 1954 Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education served as a catalyst, pushing activists like Hawkins to attack segregation on multiple fronts.
Teaming up with attorney Thomas Wyche — a colleague from his Howard days —Hawkins applied the tactics they had honed in the capital. Impeccably dressed, the two men demanded service at the segregated Airport “77” Restaurant at the new Charlotte airport. The resulting lawsuit forced the restaurant’s desegregation in 1956.
It would not be long before Hawkins thrust himself into an even higher-profile battle. Despite the Brown ruling three years prior, Charlotte’s public schools were only just beginning to integrate in the fall of 1957.
On Sept. 4, when 15-year-old Dorothy Counts was among the first Black students to integrate the all-white Harding High School, she was escorted through a jeering, spitting mob by family friend Dr. Edwin Tompkins. At the end of that harrowing first day, it was Hawkins who escorted the terrified teenager back home, shielding her from further violence.
The raw violence of that day convinced Hawkins that the courtroom-heavy strategies favored by organizations like the NAACP were no longer sufficient. He believed the movement required a direct, confrontational approach, arguing that “the only way to move forward is to engage bigots in direct controversy within their own community.”
Acting on this philosophy, Hawkins founded the Mecklenburg Organization on Political Affairs (MOPA) in 1958. MOPA mobilized the Black community around direct action, launching marches, pickets and boycotts against segregated institutions across the county.
On May 20, 1963 — pointedly chosen as the anniversary of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence — Hawkins marched JCSU students to the county courthouse. “We shall not be pacified with gradualism,” he declared to the crowd. “We shall not be satisfied with tokenism. We want freedom, and we want it now.”
Terrified of the violent, highly publicized clashes then tearing apart Birmingham, Ala., Mayor Stan Brookshire urgently collaborated with the Chamber of Commerce to peacefully desegregate Charlotte’s “white tablecloth” restaurants and movie theaters.
Hawkins’ legal and political pressure was relentless. Working alongside attorneys Jack Greenberg and Julius Chambers, he filed a lawsuit that successfully struck down The Pearsall Plan, a state policy designed to subsidize white students fleeing to private schools to avoid integration. He advised the Swann family and served as the second plaintiff in the landmark 1971 Supreme Court case Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, which resulted in nationwide court-ordered school busing.
Hawkins even sued his own profession: After being denied membership to the North Carolina Dental Society and refused privileges at local hospitals because of his race, Hawkins launched a legal battle that ultimately forced his admission in 1966. His unyielding pressure also influenced the desegregation of Charlotte Memorial Hospital (now Atrium Health) in 1963.
Hawkins’ highly visible, confrontational tactics were effective but made him a prime target for white supremacists. On the night of Nov. 22, 1965, the violent resistance raging across the Deep South arrived at his doorstep. In a coordinated terrorist attack, bombers simultaneously targeted the Historic West End homes of Hawkins and three other prominent Black leaders: NAACP state president Kelly Alexander, City Councilman Fred Alexander and civil rights attorney Julius Chambers.
Miraculously, no one was injured, though all four families were asleep inside at the time of the bombings. The Ku Klux Klan was heavily suspected, and the FBI launched a massive statewide manhunt code-named CHARBOM. Yet, no arrests were ever made, and the case remains open today.
This attack on prominent Black leaders showed that Charlotte was not immune to the violent, white supremacist resistance raging in other parts of the South.
The city’s moderate white leaders were deeply alarmed by the violence, and the attacks ran counter to the carefully cultivated image of Charlotte as a place for progress and peace during a tumultuous time in the South. The community, led by Mayor Stan Brookshire, organized a relief fund to repair the four damaged homes and held a city-wide rally for racial harmony.
Undeterred by the attempt on his life, Hawkins entered the political sphere in 1968, making history as the first African American to run for governor of North Carolina since Reconstruction. His straightforward, uncompromising campaign deeply energized young voters and drew support from national civil rights figures. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was scheduled to travel to North Carolina to campaign for Hawkins on April 4, 1968, but was rerouted at the last minute to support striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tenn., where he was assassinated.
Despite the tragedy, Hawkins’ campaign was a monumental display of newly enfranchised power. Capitalizing on the fact that Black voter registration in North Carolina had finally surpassed 50% just two years prior, Hawkins captured nearly 19% of the vote in a highly contested primary, securing an astonishing 129,808 votes. He would lose the 1968 election, but ran again four years later.
While neither bid secured the governor’s mansion, his historic campaigns functioned as powerful symbols of political arrival, permanently raising Black political consciousness in the state and paving the way for future leaders like Harvey Gantt.
Dr. Reginald Hawkins passed away in 2007. While his methods often angered segregationist opponents and alienated moderate Black leaders, his impact is undeniable. He forced a city to look in the mirror and confront the stark inequalities that the polite “Charlotte Way” attempted to obscure. Today, his former residence is recognized as a historic landmark — a quiet monument to the man who refused to wait.
John Short is a freelance writer and co-host of The Charlotte Podcast who loves digging up Charlotte’s past and pondering its future. Say hey when you see him on the streetcar.
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🎥 Watch: The Ledger’s reporters discuss the news of the week
In an online chat on Friday, The Charlotte Ledger’s Ashley Fahey, Tony Mecia and Lindsey Banks discussed some of the top stories we published this week, including: the stakes of under-the-radar lease negotiations between American Airlines and Charlotte’s airport, the struggle student newspapers are encountering in finding printers, building moratoriums in several fast-growing communities in the Charlotte region, the potential for a prime steakhouse battle and, of course, the arrival of Waymo.
Check it out!
This week in Charlotte: Student papers scramble after printer closure; Talking with Sam Hart of Counter-; Waymo makes its local debut; Industries with big job gains; New AD at UNC Charlotte
On Saturdays, The Ledger sifts through the local news of the week and links to the top articles — even if they appeared somewhere else. We’ll help you get caught up. That’s what Saturdays are for.
Education
Student papers search for new printers: (Ledger🔒) After a longtime Charlotte printing company shut down, high school and college newspapers are scrambling to find new vendors as print options shrink and costs rise. Even so, advisers and students say the physical paper still matters, offering a tangible payoff that digital publishing can’t replace.
College gender gap: (Carolina Public Press) Women outnumber men at every UNC System college except N.C. State. About 41% of UNC System undergraduates are men, and male enrollment has declined at most schools in the last decade.
Politics
Council backs pause on I-77 lanes: (Ledger🔒) Nine Charlotte City Council members say they support putting the $3.2B I-77 toll lane expansion on hold after residents packed a meeting to protest its impact on west Charlotte neighborhoods.
Big money flows into UCity House race: (Ledger) Fundraising is ramping up in the Democratic primary for the University City-area N.C. House seat, with challenger Rodney Sadler raising more than twice as much as incumbent Carla Cunningham through the end of 2025.
Local news
Waymo vehicles spotted in uptown lot: (Ledger) A dozen Jaguar SUVs branded with Waymo logos were delivered to a gravel lot in uptown Charlotte this week, signaling that the self-driving taxi company is preparing to test service locally.
Why your power bill spiked: (WFAE) Duke Energy says customers used significantly more power for heating during January’s cold snap, which pushed bills higher even though rate increases were relatively modest.
40 over 40 nominees: (Ledger) The Ledger is excited to announce all 137 nominees for The Charlotte Ledger’s 40 Over 40 Awards, presented by U.S. Bank. Judges will select 40 honorees to be announced in late March, with a celebration planned for April 23 at Project 658 near Plaza Midwood.
Business
What’s driving Charlotte’s job growth: (Ledger) A deeper dive into new federal data shows most of the 37,600 jobs added in the Charlotte region last year came from business services, health care and hospitality, while manufacturing and information jobs declined.
Lowe’s layoffs: (Observer, subscriber-only) Lowe’s CEO Marvin Ellison briefly acknowledged the company’s recent 600-plus job cuts during an earnings call, as the home improvement giant navigates a challenging market.
Sports
New athletic director: (Press Release) Former Clemson deputy director of athletics Kevin White has been tapped as UNC Charlotte’s next director of athletics, becoming the 49ers’ eighth leader to assume the top spot in the athletic department. White will officially begin tomorrow and is set to be introduced at a public press conference later this month.
Charlotte FC adds lower-cost tickets for 2026: (Axios) The team announced a new batch of discounted seats priced at $26 for each home game next season, aimed at making matches more affordable for more fans. The tickets will be limited per match and come as the club looks to draw in new supporters with global attention on soccer rising.
Leaky roof causes suspension: (WSOC) Competition at USA Curling Nationals was suspended Thursday after another roof leak at Bojangles Coliseum dripped onto the ice. Organizers said they’re working to salvage evening matches, marking the second leak-related disruption at the venue in about a week.
From the Ledger family of newsletters
The story of Charlotte’s first Michelin star. Plus: Business services tops jobs growth; Big spending in UCity race; Toppman reviews ‘Boundless’; Fútbol is back; ICE proposes facility in Concord; Local businesses react to tariff ruling
Wednesday (🔒)
When the presses stop. Plus: Self-driving taxis arrive in Charlotte; Toppman reviews ‘MJ’; Local effects of immigration policy; City Council backs pause on I-77 lanes; Why your power bill spiked; AI-related layoffs at LPL
Friday (🔒)
Crunch time for American Airlines. Plus: Commission chair rejects Atrium board nominees; Wagyu war ahead?; Ledger announces 40 Over 40 nominees; UNC System raises in-state tuition; Charlotte FC offers $26 tickets; Petty Thieves sold
Ways of Life (🔒)
In memoriam: Les Moore, a legend in music. Also remembered: Highly respected plastic surgeon; a senior engineer at Southern Bell and communications director at Belk; an administrative assistant at East Meck; a founder of Metrolina Nephrology
Charlotte’s suburbs are tapping the brakes on growth: As areas beyond Mecklenburg County boom, local government leaders are devising new strategies to manage growth — and fierce opposition from constituents.
Charlotte FC tackles declining attendance: As newness wears off in season No. 5, the club is employing a series of initiatives to bolster attendance, which dipped from second to third in MLS last year, plus previewing Saturday’s game in L.A.
Toppman on the Arts
Two dances, infinite reach: Charlotte Ballet’s “Winter Works: Boundless” runs through March 21 at McBride-Bonnefoux Center for Dance, 701 N. Tryon St.
The King of Pop never stood still: ‘MJ The Musical’ runs through March 1 at Belk Theater, 130 N Tryon St.
Will a new steakhouse set up a showdown with Steak 48? Plus: New renderings of Second Ward Medical High School; Bank of America Stadium renovation timeline and ‘experience center’; Charlotte tops in office-using employment; BofA’s Gateway Village plans