"I Come to Bury Him, Not to Praise Him:" Ringing Down the Final Curtain on Team Gantt
David Gantt was a fixture in Rochester politics for fifty years. Starting out as an angry young Black man who was tired of Black folk being patronized by White politicians, he carved out a career of influence in the New York State Assembly, getting re-elected year after year. In Rochester, he became a power broker for politicians, usually Black, who sought election to public office. He was also a mentor to most of the current crop of Black elected officials in Rochester. To do so, he had a head-on collision with the White, elitist Morelle faction of the Monroe County Democratic Committee, since they exemplified the patronizing White politicians of Gantt's youth. The kindest thing I can say about the Morelle faction is that they resembled the British Liberal Party of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, whose patronizing attitude towards the poor and the working class forced those people into the Labour Party. It is that attitude that disrupted Rochester's political life for