Delaware NAACP President Richard “Mouse” Smith passed away in his home Thursday after battling various illnesses.
Smith had been involved with the NAACP since the 1960s and is a lifelong friend of President Joe Biden, who served as best man at Smith’s wedding.
In a 2020 interview with PBS’s Frontline, Smith relayed the story of meeting Biden at Prices Run swimming pool in Wilmington as a teenager, where Biden worked as a lifeguard.
"One thing about Joe, Joe could make friends real easy. You look at this guy, pretty boy, and you say, well, he comes from a good family, the way he carry his self, clean-cut haircut and all that. But he could make friends. And once he made friends, he had a mind like a computer that he would store it back there in his mind, and anyplace he’d see you, he could call your name and stuff, or he could tell you what you all talked about and stuff like that," Smith told Frontline.
Delaware Democratic Senate leadership released a statement Friday expressing their condolences, noting his work with the NAACP and the Wilmington community at-large will have “lasting impacts for generations to come.”
Sen. Chris Coons also expressed his condolences, commending Smith’s dedication to civil rights and justice.
Coons’s statement reads: “Richard’s passing leaves a profound void not just on the political and activist landscape of the First State and the nation – but in the hearts of all who knew him and came to fight for advancement and equality alongside him.”
