Mel Watt

Respected lawyer, civil rights champion, savvy political operative, effective legislator and dedicated housing chief, Mel Watt is the 2025 Charlotte Post Foundation Luminary.
Having grown up in a house without plumbing or electricity, Watt was driven to succeed in several walks of life. Along the way, he helped himself and others.
“I have learned to stand up for myself,” Watt said. “I have progressive views." Said Post Publisher Gerald Johnson: “We’re proud to celebrate his life story. "Watt will be feted at the Post Foundation’s annual banquet on Oct. 4 at the Hilton in Center City.

Geraldine Sumter practiced law with Watt in what is now Ferguson Chambers & Sumter. Since the early 1980s, they’ve remained friends.

“Mel is brief and to the point,” Sumter says. “But Melvin looks after people he cares about and who need him.”

“Here’s a guy who serves his community very well,” Gantt said of Watt. “He managed campaigns, ran himself, was elected 10 times, did good things in Congress and ran a very important federal agency. How could this guy not be a Luminary?”
Perhaps best known for managing Gantt’s political campaigns, Watt says Gantt’s 1990 unsuccessful race against incumbent U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms was one of the most fun times in his political career.

“We decided to run an unapologetically progressive campaign,” Watt said, “because Jesse Helms was going to run an unapologetically conservative campaign.”

Watt spent his first 10 years in a primitive house in Mecklenburg County’s Dixie community. After his mother moved Watt and his two brothers to a nicer home nearby, he ended up at segregated York Road High where Mattie Grigsby taught math. Now 97 and living at The Sharon at SouthPark, Grigsby has kept up with Watt and vice versa. He sang a song at her 93rd birthday party.

“Recently he has been my escort for a couple of activities at Johnson C. Smith University,” she said. Grigsby prizes a photo of a 1980s “Teacher Appreciation Week” billboard featuring pictures of Watt and herself.

Watt earned business and law degrees from UNC Chapel Hill and Yale University, respectively.  
On the February 1971 night before Watt started work at Julius Chambers’ law firm, its 10th Street office was firebombed. Subsequently, he facilitated Chambers’ efforts to build East Independence Plaza to house the firm and several Black doctors. Watt brought a business law focus to Chambers’ practice. “It was just great, because I fully supported his civil rights mission,” he recalls. “People thought I was the guy who could get loans and do a development plan for them, and I could. ”With a thriving business practice and growing legal community respect, Watt became the first African American president of the Mecklenburg County Bar Association. Watt’s friend Gantt had formed Gantt Huberman Architects and was picked to fill an unexpired city council term of Fred Alexander. Soon, he decided to run on his own. “The phone rang and it was Harvey,” Watt remembers. “He asked me to manage his campaign for city council.” Watt accepted and ultimately managed multiple Gantt campaigns – for city council, mayor and U.S. Senate. North Carolina’s 12th Congressional District was formed in 1992, configured to favor a Black candidate. It included parts of Charlotte and other urban areas. Previously, Watt had served a term in the state Senate. At Gantt’s suggestion, he ran in the new 12th and won. Watt spent 21 years in office. Watt takes pride in how he helped his district, especially with federal funding for Charlotte’s light rail line and Hope VI public housing improvements.
“I got a provision written into the Hope VI program that said if you redevelop a community, you’ve got to put the number of affordable units back in that you took out.”  
Watt served on financial services and judiciary committees and chaired the Congressional Black Caucus – the first North Carolina lawmaker to do so.
“We documented the disparities between Black people and white people,” he said, “and our objective was to eliminate those disparities.”
President Barack Obama selected Watt to lead the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which he did for five years.
“Nationally, we saved over 100,000 people from losing their homes,” Watt said. “The best job I ever had. It is an independent agency. I didn’t have to answer to anybody.”
Watt has written an autobiography that recounts his service in law, politics and bureaucracy. 
“I’ve had three good careers,” he said, “so I’m not looking for a job.”