Years later, when sportswriter John Feinstein brought up the incident in a conversation with Smith, the coach bristled and demanded to know who had leaked the anecdote. Then he said these words, which have the ring of an epitaph: “You should never be proud of doing what’s right. You should just do what’s right.”

Where the HONY campaign was noble for its openness, Smith’s campaign was noble for its loneliness. Where the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge tried to broadcast information, Smith tried to keep information hidden.

Is there a special dignity to this method of silent activism?

It’s an open question, but my answer is an affirmation: on a gut level, this method feels virtuous.  

Not all situations can be resolved with the genre of vigilante activism that Smith performed in Chapel Hill in 1964. But given the web-wide push to a visible extreme of social justice, we too often dismiss the invisible alternative because we are too afraid to be lonely advocates.

Raising awareness is beneficial, clearly, but so is working on your own. Sometimes you can’t fall back on the moral support of a large community or the material support of knowing that your contributions will have an impact. Sometimes, in Smith’s words, “you should just do what’s right” because it’s right.

For me, this philosophy is best encapsulated in the image of blind activists. Such people act without looking at others, which means, by extension, that they can only look at themselves.  

No matter what cause enflames you, I encourage you to close your eyes, point your head down, and do the same.

Sam Danello ’18 is a Crimson editorial writer living in Grays Hall.