corporate-sponsoring image -- he is , halberstam underscores , no jackie robinson , muhammad ali or paul robeson in the civil rights arena -- that he would not even support harvey gantt , an early civil rights leader , when he was running for a senate seat in jordan 's home state of north carolina against jesse helms , called by halberstam `` the nemesis of carolina blacks -lrb- among many others -rrb- . ''