Something extraordinary happened Tuesday in Charlotte.

No, I’m not talking about the election of Anthony Foxx as the Qcity’s first black mayor since Harvey Gantt. I’m talking about what happened in the 11 city council races.

You probably won’t read it stated this plainly in the mainstream headlines, but eight of the 11 council members elected yesterday are Democrats – and five of those eight Democrats are black.

Add Mayor-elect Foxx to the mix and half of the city’s 12 elected leaders will soon be African American.

Never before in the history of Charlotte has the city had such a huge Democratic majority, or elected so many African Americans to lead.

At 35 percent, the city's proportion of black voters is more than a third higher than when Gantt was first elected in 1983, the Charlotte Observer noted today.

So what does this mean for a Sunbelt city struggling to reinvent itself after the meltdown of its signature banking industry?

Readers of the Observer online already are postings comments predicting that Charlotte is fast becoming the next urban slum.

“Charlotte's always wanted to be like Atlanta. Now it is. I'm so glad I moved out!” said one Observer reader.

“Can’t wait to see public housing in Myers Park & Dilworth, hehehe,” said another.

The racist sentiment aside, I suspect Charlotte will be just fine under its new leadership.

But that said, a word of caution:

Many of us who started out in segregated schools recall parents and teachers who drilled into our heads constantly that if we as African Americans were to succeed, we’d have to be smarter and perform better than our white counterparts. We grew up knowing that a large chunk of society expected us to fail, and we found strength and determination in that knowledge.

Sadly, there is an element in Charlotte that would delight in the failure of our newly elected city leaders. Thus, we cannot allow failure to happen.

As Charlotte becomes browner – and yes, that trend will continue – we need leaders with vision and integrity, people who dare to imagine but also know the importance of fiscal restraint.

We cannot allow our city to get caught up in the types of political scandals, bickering and fiscal irresponsibility that have plagued Detroit and other urban centers.

After his election last night, Foxx was asked by the media if he saw Tuesday’s vote, with its Democratic swing, as a mandate from voters.

“I don’t think in terms of mandates,” he said. “There’s a great amount of opportunity there, but there’s a great amount of expectations, too. When you have that kind of majority, you’re expected to get thing done.”

Words to govern by.