Dianna Ward: Carrying Forward the Legacy of Education

 In my house, nobody used the word feminist. In my house, there was no such thing as boys’ work or girls’ work. We all had a day to wash dishes and iron clothes. My brothers were not allowed to play football,
nor were they encouraged in any of the toxic masculinity traits.

My dad volunteered with a low-income boy scout troop, and it had kids from some very marginalized backgrounds. It’s fun to note that after he retired, he taught classes at a prison. He would stick around after the class, and talk to young men who desperately needed a great role model. In addition, during retirement, my dad also decided to teach high school math, enrolling students in their first STEM [science, technology, engineering, and mathematics] competitions.

In my house, nobody used the word feminist. In my house, there was no such thing as boys’ work or girls’ work. We all had a day to wash dishes and iron clothes. My brothers were not allowed to play football, nor were they encouraged in any of the toxic masculinity traits.

My parents never discouraged us from doing an activity. They accepted us as who we were even though, for me, that meant accepting the fact that I was gay from a very young age. They did not have a blueprint for dealing with my sexuality. But what they did have was unwavering love for all of us. They never harmed any part of me, and they never said a disparaging thing about me. Not once. As a matter of fact, mama and my step-dad joined PFLAG [Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays] and protested against people like Fred Phelps [a disbarred American attorney, notorious anti-gay, hate preacher of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas].

While both of my parents were from very low-income backgrounds, they both had an incredible love for music. My dad took classical guitar lessons. He was my and my brother’s first music instructor. We each played at least two instruments, beginning when we were 5 years old. They encouraged our love for all music. They even purchased season tickets to the symphony each year. They were “nosebleed” section tickets. (laughter)

My mom took us out of school each year when the African American pianist, Andre Watts, came to town. She would take us to meet him before his rehearsal at the music hall. My mom had made friends with the conductor of the Kansas City Symphony, and we were allowed to meet jazz and classical artists who came to town. We spent summers going to free, outdoor, classical and jazz concerts. My sisters really excelled in music. Bennie played the violin, winning many competitions. She was a member of the youth symphony. Benita was a concert pianist and an incredible dancer. She took lessons from the Kansas City Ballet. Later in life, she joined the Martha Graham Dance Company, founded in New York City.

We drove across country to participate in the National March on Washington for Gay and Lesbian Rights in 1987.
I slept in a shanty town in the middle of campus until the college agreed to divest.

Whatever we wanted to do, my parents put their time and energy into us. At Grinnell College, in Iowa, I was super active in everything, in both the gay community and in politics. I was a delegate to the District Convention in Iowa for Jesse Jackson. I joined AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT-UP). We drove across the country to participate in the National March on Washington for Gay and Lesbian Rights in 1987. I slept in a shanty town in the middle of campus until the college agreed to divest.

I attended graduate school at North Carolina State University, and I completed joint master’s degree in statistics and operations research. Upon completing the degree, I was recruited by Corning Incorporated to join their internal consulting team. There, I was one of two employees that started Spectra, the LGBTQ support group. We were successful in obtaining partner benefits for LGBTQ Corning Employees.

In 2001, I transferred with Corning Incorporated back to North Carolina. I worked in Hickory, North Carolina, and I lived in Charlotte, North Carolina. I became involved with several organizations. I started a hiking group called “Take a Hike” for underrepresented people. In addition, I was active with several local and national LGBTQ organizations.

Eventually, I left glass research with Corning, and I began to apply my math skills in banking. I was a senior vice president at the Bank of America and Wachovia Bank. During my time at Bank of America, I wrote a business plan for the bank to acquire a small bank in Washington, D.C. That’s when I recognized that I was very good at writing business plans.

Where there is a need in our communities, I want to be present, working toward a better future.

That’s also when I got the entrepreneur bug. I started making an inventory of my skills and hobbies. On my very first, overseas trip to Prague, I participated in a bike tour where I realized that Charlotte [North Carolina] is very beautiful, and it has an interesting story to tell. In August of 2009, I opened “Charlotte NC Tours.” We started with doing bike tours, bike rentals, and van tours. Afterward, we added tours on Segways and buses; and walking, ghost, and food tours.

After we achieved success in Charlotte, we subsequently opened tours in Greenville, South Carolina; Kansas City, Missouri; and Chattanooga, Tennessee. During this same time, I was offered the opportunity to run one of the first bikeshare programs in the country, Charlotte BCycle, now known as Charlotte Joyrides. I was one of the first, and I am still one of the only people of color running a bikeshare program.

My involvement in bikeshare opened several doors, including partnering with another company to own 35% of Blue Bikes NOLA, a New Orleans, Louisiana bikeshare program. While involved in the bikeshare space, I helped found the North American Bikeshare Association, and I became its president. My entrepreneurship was acclaimed by Mecklenburg Times. I was selected as one of their “Fifty Most Influential Women in 2015.”

Ultimately, Uber bought my partner’s business in New Orleans and I was paid for my 35% of Blue Bikes NOLA. I invested this money in a gem of a building in the Historic West End of Charlotte, North Carolina. I created a partnership, Sankofa Partners, LLC; and we successfully purchased the building and fixed it up.

My passion has always been to be a part of the solution. The work continues, whether it is activism through preserving our neighborhoods or marching in the streets. Thanks to my parents for laying the foundation for my activism. Where there is a need in our communities, I want to be present, working toward a better future.

This building was the catalyst for other people of color purchasing buildings on the corridor and fixing them up. A few years later, some of the same members of this investment group purchased a building a few blocks away.

This interview has been edited for archiving by the interviewer and interviewee, close to the time of the interview. More recently, it has been edited and updated for posting on this website. Original interviews are archived at the Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture in the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.

See also:

Charlotte Joy Rides

Charlotte, North Carolina Tours

Burkins, Glenn H., “Change Agents: In the Shadow of JCSU, Dianna Ward is Creating a New Retail Environment,” QCity Metro, August 16, 2020

Harry, Amanda, “Preserving the Community Through Real Estate Investment,” QCity Metro, January 19, 2023.

Rago, Gordon, “Two Black Developers are Helping to Change Charlotte’s West End,” Charlotte Observer, March 20, 2023.

Whittington, Miranda, “Charlotte Woman Brings Life Back to Historic West End Building,” Spectrum News  December 6,2021.