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Robert McNees (mcnees@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 13-Jan-2024 17:50:17 UTC Robert McNees

“You should never be proud of doing what's right. You should just do what's right."
Watching the UNC-Syracuse game, happy to see ESPN talking about Charlie Scott’s legacy and Dean Smith’s involvement in the civil rights movement.
I think about this story all the time:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/memories-of-dean-smith-linger-even-as-his-memory-sadly-fails-him/2014/03/01/fade81c0-a0ae-11e3-b8d8-94577ff66b28_story.html
In conversation about 11 months ago from mastodon.social permalink
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1. One of the people I interviewed for the story was Rev. Robert Seymour, who had been Smith's pastor at the Binkley Baptist Church since 1958, when he first arrived in Chapel Hill. Seymour told me a story about how upset Smith was to learn that Chapel Hill's restaurants were still segregated. He and Seymour came up with an idea: Smith would walk into a restaurant with a black member of the church. "You have to remember," Reverend Seymour said. "Back then, he wasn't Dean Smith. He was an assistant coach. Nothing more." Smith agreed and went to a restaurant where management knew him. He and his companion sat down and were served. That was the beginning of desegregation in Chapel Hill.
  https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/111/749/903/839/592/539/original/2acf16cb1b60f0db.jpeg
2. When I circled back to Smith and asked him to tell me more about that night, he shot me an angry look. "Who told you about that?" he asked. "Reverend Seymour," I said. "I wish he hadn't done that." "Why? You should be proud of doing something like that." He leaned forward in his chair and in a very quiet voice said something I've never forgotten: "You should never be proud of doing what's right. You should just do what's right."
  https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/111/749/903/887/601/118/original/6bbc82f1de7c33f1.jpeg

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