Smothers graduated from the historically black Prairie View A&M University in Waller County , Texas . He and his wife , Barbara , lived for several years in Chicago , Illinois , where he was a teacher and special law-enforcement officer involved in the control of youth gangs . He served on Mayor Richard J. Daley 's Commission on Youth Welfare . He and Barbara returned to Texas in 1964 . He first worked in the St. Paul orphanage but in the late 1960s moved to Dallas , where he operated a grocery store in the South Oak Cliff neighborhood . He became news editor of the Dallas radio station KNOK-AM , from which he had to step down while running for office . He also wrote newspaper columns highlighting the theme of Americanism and opposition to what he called " extremist groups on the left and right . " In 1972 , Smothers surfaced to national attention as an alternate delegate for then Governor George Wallace at the Democratic National Convention . Without any expectation of success , Smothers nominated himself for vice president to run with nominee George McGovern but polled support from only seventy-four delegates , a number still more than twice that received by Governor Jimmy Carter of Georgia , the 1976 Democratic presidential nominee who was not an announced candidate for vice-president
Democratic National Convention
1972 Democratic National Convention
Clay Smothers