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DURHAM D

(33,062 posts)
5. In memory of Dean Smith -
Sat Sep 23, 2017, 03:18 PM
Sep 2017

he would have never considered going to the Trump WH.

Political activities[edit]
Dean Smith was one of the most prominent Democrats in North Carolina politics. Politically, he was best known for promoting desegregation. In 1964, Smith joined a local pastor and a black North Carolina theology student to integrate The Pines, a Chapel Hill restaurant. He also integrated the Tar Heels basketball team by recruiting Charlie Scott as the university's first black scholarship athlete.[5] In 1965, Smith helped Howard Lee, a black graduate student at North Carolina, purchase a home in an all-white neighborhood.[9] He opposed the Vietnam War and, in the early 1980s, famously recorded radio spots to promote a freeze on nuclear weapons. He has been a prominent opponent of the death penalty. In 1998, he appeared at a clemency hearing for a death-row inmate and pointed at then-Governor Jim Hunt: "You're a murderer. And I'm a murderer. The death penalty makes us all murderers." As head coach, he periodically held North Carolina basketball practices in North Carolina prisons.[46]

While coach, he was recruited by some in the Democratic Party to run for the United States Senate against incumbent Jesse Helms. He declined. But in retirement, he continued to speak out on issues such as the war in Iraq, death penalty and gay rights.[46][dead link][47] Although a staunch Democrat, Smith did support one of his former players, Richard Vinroot, a Republican who ran for governor of North Carolina in 2000.[48][49] In 2006, Smith became the spokesperson for Devout Democrats, an inter-faith, grassroots political action committee designed to convince religious Americans to vote for Democrats. Smith was featured in an ad that ran in newspapers across North Carolina and was featured in an Associated Press article.[50] On October 13, 2008, he endorsed Senator Barack Obama's candidacy for President of the United States.[51]


Above is from his wikipedia entry.

Recommendations

0 members have recommended this reply (displayed in chronological order):

Good. dalton99a Sep 2017 #1
Excellent! n/t RKP5637 Sep 2017 #2
Did you read the story? What "rebuke" was there? onenote Sep 2017 #3
Dreadful headline. Pacifist Patriot Sep 2017 #7
The headline is the OP's creation. onenote Sep 2017 #8
Curry has been to the White House when we had a real POTUS Gothmog Sep 2017 #4
In memory of Dean Smith - DURHAM D Sep 2017 #5
There is no political statement here. Just scheduling conflicts. Pacifist Patriot Sep 2017 #6
Good musical accompaniment mcar Sep 2017 #9
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