Steve Schewel

Stephen M. Schewel (born 1951) is an American politician, businessman, and academic. A Democrat, he is the former Mayor of Durham, North Carolina and formerly served on the Durham City Council and as the Vice Chair of the Durham Public School Board. Schewel is also a faculty member at Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy and a former faculty member at North Carolina Central University. He founded the weekly newspaper Indy Week in 1983, and served as its president until he sold the paper in 2012. In 2010 he co-founded the Hopscotch Music Festival. Early life and education Schewel grew up in Lynchburg, Virginia. He moved to North Carolina in 1969 to attend Duke University. While an undergraduate student, Schewel served as the president of the Associated Students of Duke University. In this capacity, he granted the charter to Duke's first LGBTQ student organization in 1973. He graduated magna cum laude from Duke in 1973. He earned a master's degree in English from Columbia University in 1974, and a Ph.D. in education from Duke in 1982. Career Business and academia In 1983 Schewel founded the newspaper North Carolina Independent, later renamed Indy Week. Schewel personally wrote the state's first same-sex marriage announcement in the paper. Schewel stepped down as the paper's publisher in 1999, but continued on as president of the company until he sold it in 2012. He is also a co-founder of the Hopscotch Music Festival, which he sold in 2015.