Financial capital of the Sunbelt and, through aggressive banking mergers, for all US finance. The city was founded in colonial days; in the 1930s, nearby Gastonia became famous for violent strikes in the growing textile industry in the region. Yet, opportunities in banking and service have attracted people and investments in a spectacular transformation in the late twentieth century for both the cityscape and the society. While cultural facilities and government initiatives are grappling with growth, expansion sport franchises (Hornets in basketball and Panthers in football) have also laid claim to status as a “major-league” city. Yet despite 20 percent growth in the 1990s (expanding metropolitan population to 1,383,625), other North Carolina development in the Research Triangle (Raleigh-Durham/Cha-pel Hill, with both Duke and the University of North Carolina) has outstripped it and may well pass Charlotte by 2020. With strong growth in Greensboro, and resort development in the mountains and on the coast, this suggests fundamental re-orientations ahead in a state once defined by white conservative politics (see Helms, Jesse) and an older Southern heritage of race, class, religion and regionalism. Thomas Hanchett’s Sorting Out the New South City (1998) provides a detailed analysis of Charlotte’s development and insights into both the South and the Sunbelt.