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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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John Matthew (Johnny) Smith“Athlete as Moral Crusader: Is the Muhammed Ali Model Lost?” quotes School of History and Sociology assistant professor, John M. Smith, Ph.D.
From The Christian Science Monitor article:
In some ways, times have simply changed from his era of upheaval, when black Americans in the South faced not just Jim Crow discrimination but also lynchings. Moreover, athletes also are never cut from a common personality mold. And as Ali himself showed, none are paragons of unalloyed moral perfection.
But, even as some sports stars do take public political stands today, many observers say they could do more.
Athletes now prefer to be active in less confrontational ways – like giving to charities, funding scholarships, and investing in poor communities, says Johnny Smith, a historian at Georgia Tech.
Read the full article on The Christian Science Monitor here.
