Andrew Park

Asst. Vice Provost, @DukeU | Founder, @NewNewSouth | Author, Between a Church and a Hard Place (Penguin/Avery, 2010)

[Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove @wilsonhartgrove]

A gift to be at @DukeU for the ceremony to rename the East Campus Union after George Wall, founder of Walltown.

I got a great education at Duke, but Walltown taught me what an education is good for. Mr Wall’s 3-great granddaughter’s roll call of our community named so much…

[Nathan Thrall @NathanThrall]

I'll be traveling to the US for a series of events in October:
https://t.co/oV2FtrUMNe

[Jeremy Markovich 🐇🕳️ @deftlyinane]

pics of billy joel and sting at the thirsty beaver or it didn't happen

[SAVE A SEAT FOR ME (Simon & Schuster, 2026) @NewBlackMan]

'@LeftOfBlack, @DukeU's intrepid web series, begins its milestone fifteenth season in mid-October 2024, continuing its tradition of featuring Black Studies faculty along with visual artists, poets, activists, and musicians.'
https://t.co/sbVV1LF5pa

[Axios Charlotte @axioscharlotte]

Sixty-seven years ago Wednesday, a 15-year-old Black girl took one of the most consequential walks in Charlotte history.
https://t.co/APwBSHlTiP

[Evan Smith @evanasmith]

Every year on this day — the anniversary of Charles Whitman’s
shooting spree at the Unversity of Texas — I post a link to the best story I ever edited: @pamelacolloff’s “96 Minutes.” It’s still the best read, and Pam is still and always the 🐐 https://t.co/dGxt3akBLv #txlege

[Andy Murray @andy_murray]

Never even liked tennis anyway.

[Ry 🇵🇸🕊 @youaintryan]

Finally finally FINALLY got an About page together for @superemptync after five months of being more focused on getting pieces out the door.

We're paying writers, photographers and designers to tell the stories of NC's hip-hop + creative scene. You in?

https://t.co/mKq0nZZjjd

[Andrew Park @AndrewCPark]

@radleybalko Cadaver King was so good.

[Anthony Foxx @anthonyfoxx]

Good morning. Here are my further thoughts on last night’s tragic shooting. First, I extend heartfelt condolences to families of the victims and prayers for a speedy recovery of the survivors, including former President Donald Trump. 1/4

[thomaslake @thomaslake]

Something fascinating happens in your first game of basketball on a new court. Let’s call it an "acceleration." You start running with nine total strangers and get to know them very quickly. Human nature reveals itself through action. (1/)

[Andrew Park @AndrewCPark]

@pmnapoli @Duke_DeWitt @dallasnews Congratulations to Stephen!

[Danny Davis @_dannydavis]

This is a really, really, really rough day in our newsroom. Lori was a treasured colleague and a great and respected journalist.

https://t.co/CHXtzB9Zy5

[Andrew Park @AndrewCPark]

@_dannydavis @JimVertuno What terrible news. I sat next to Lori for two years at the Statesman. She was an extraordinary colleague and friend.

[Queen City Jamz @QueenCityJamz]

RIP Dex Romweber

[Andrew Park @AndrewCPark]

@NoahShachtman Great run, Shachtman!

[Aaron Beard @aaronbeardap]

As someone who came through the DTH and still does some volunteer work with them, this is very cool -- but for both newspapers. Regardless of which shade of blue you support, this fundraiser brought in $128,087.20 for student journalism. Incredible, a hat tip to all!

[Jerry Mitchell @JMitchellNews]

#OnThisDay in 1963, Harvey Gantt became the first Black student at Clemson University in South Carolina, the last state to hold out against court-ordered desegregation.

After graduating second in his class from Burke High School in Charleston in 1960, he studied architecture at Iowa State University and began to fight a legal battle to attend Clemson, which he won. Nine months later, Lucinda Brawley became the first Black woman to attend. A year later, they married.

Gantt graduated with honors in 1965, receiving a bachelor’s degree in architecture and later a master’s in city planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He moved to Charlotte and co-founded an architectural firm with Jeff Huberman. Their firm developed some of the city’s most iconic landmarks, including the Johnson C. Smith University Science Center. He also broke down barriers, becoming the city’s first Black mayor in 1983. Three years later, he became a fellow in the American Institute of Architects, the highest honor given to an architect.

Gantt continued to be active in civil rights, collaborating with activist Floyd B. McKissick to design Soul City, an experimental interracial community. In 1990, he ran against U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms and was leading in the polls against the politician who had backed racial segregation, filibustered against the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and once called the University of North Carolina the “University of Negroes and Communists.”

“Every race I’ve been in,” Gantt said, “I calculated race into the equation. If you’re in America, you calculate it into the equation. It is a factor. I never make it an issue. I don’t run the campaign wearing it on my sleeve, but I don’t run away from it either.”

Before the vote, Helms aired a commercial with a pair of white hands with the voiceover declaring, “You wanted this job, but because of a law they had to give it to a minority.”

He won with 52.5 percent of the vote.

Today, the African-American Center for Arts+Culture in Charlotte bears the name of Gantt, who continues to urge young people to “never give up on their dreams and vision to become somebody. We all possess the potential to become successful in life, and I challenge every student to settle for nothing less.”
https://t.co/O143MQyP99

[Leonardo Williams @LeoForDurham]

Yesterday, our very own student newspapers at Duke, UNC Chapel Hill, NC State, and 40+ more nationwide published a student-written op ed on gun violence and the power of the student identity. Signed by 145 student leaders representing 90 student groups nationwide. Something like this has never been done before.

Please give it a read! Thx to these students (including my speechwriter, Andrew Sun!) for highlighting an issue so important to Durham and America.

https://t.co/MulpJysJKP