Athletes have taken social stands before. Why this time is different.

In a contest that was coming down to the wire, it was only natural to turn to an athlete who was famous for coming through in the clutch. The competition was the 1990 Senate race in North Carolina, a heated, racially divisive match between Harvey Gantt, a Democrat and the first African American mayor of Charlotte, and the longtime Republican incumbent, Jesse Helms, a pillar of the ultraconservative wing of the party.

A famously staunch segregationist, Mr. Helms had strongly opposed the movement to create a national holiday in honor of Martin Luther King Jr., and some of his TV ads during the campaign had played to white racial resentment. One of them showed a close-up of a pair of white hands crumpling up a job applicant’s rejection letter, with a voice-over saying the person had lost out on the position to a less-qualified African American because of racial quotas in hiring.

In the final weeks of the campaign, polls showed that the underdog Mr. Gantt had a realistic chance of unseating Mr. Helms, and it was obvious that an endorsement from Michael Jordan, the former University of North Carolina basketball star who had gone on to international fame with the Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association, might put Mr. Gantt over the top. But when asked to come out publicly in favor of the Democrat, Mr. Jordan declined. He had become a successful Nike pitchman, making millions by appearing in commercials and print ads that had sent the sales of the company’s athletic gear soaring. It wouldn’t be prudent to support Mr. Gantt and risk alienating Mr. Helms’ supporters, Mr. Jordan said, because “Republicans buy sneakers,

Turning pointsFrom backlash to endorsementsA fourth wave