Charlotte Loses A leading Civil Rights and Political Activist To Cancer
Dwayne Collins, one of Charlotte’s leading civil rights and political activists for the better part of two decades died Sunday at age 51 after a battle against cancer.Mr. Collins, a former chair of the Black Political Caucus of Charlotte-Mecklenburg and president of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg NAACP, was one of Charlotte’s most influential organizers in the late 1990s and early 2000s when he led the expansion of political and civil rights gains for African Americans.
He led community efforts to maintain busing for desegregation in the 2001 Capacchione case, which ultimately ended the practice in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools as well as taking Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police to task in the mid-1990s after a spate of deadly officer-involved shootings of African Americans raised tensions across the city.
Mr. Collins was a native of Fayetteville, but moved to Charlotte in 1976 and graduated Garinger High School and Johnson C. Smith University, where he earned a degree in English. He worked for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and financial services before taking a higher profile as a political advocate. Mr. Collins was part of a wave of younger black leaders who came of age in integrated schools and a more affluent black middle class their predecessors didn’t have.
Mr. Collins was also passionate about fashion. He owned The Sartorial Servant, a wardrobe consultation service for men. He also wrote an advice column on fashion for local media.
“We educate men on dressing well,” Mr. Collins told Huami magazine in 2017. “When a man dresses well, it builds his confidence.”
