Fifty-two years ago, Tommie Smith and John Carlos stood against injustice. Fifty-two years later, Americans are doing the same.
As we debate about the appropriateness of public protests taking place in America today, let’s not forget an incredibly important event in American history. It happened October 16, 1968, during an Olympics Medal Ceremony in Mexico City.
Smith and Carlos (photo, Neil Leifer and ‘Because of them we can’)
The principals were two U.S. track and field athletes, Tommie Smith and John Carlos. For perspective, track and field athletes back then, as they do today, compete in minor sports–events that are followed by a relatively small fan base. For evidence, can you name the American who won the 1500 meters at the Rio Games? (The answer is Matt Centrowitz.)
At the time, Smith and Carlos were college students at San Jose State. Smith was the first runner to break twenty seconds in the 200 meters (he did it on a cinder track). Carlos, who grew up in Harlem, wanted to be an Olympic swimmer … until his father told him that the nearest pool was for Whites only. Carlos became a gifted runner instead.
For context, 1968 will go down as a tumultuous year in American history. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy were assassinated, there were countrywide protests about the Viet Nam War, and there were riots in the streets of Chicago during the Democratic National Convention.
Back then, as today, living in America was a difficult proposition for many African Americans.
At the 1968 Olympic Games, Smith and Carlos agreed that they would give the black power salute as they stood on the medal stand after the 200-meter competition. The first step was winning, of course, which they did–Smith won Gold, and Carlos took Bronze.
Olympic officials had a sense ‘something was up,’ and they had Olympic great Jesse Owens talk with them beforehand. Dissuaded, they were not. “I had a moral obligation to step up,” Carlos remembers. “Morality was a far greater force than the rules and regulations they had.”
But there were consequences. “The fire was all around me,” said Carlos.
As they received their medals, 50,000 fans present were silent, and then, booed. Afterward, the IOC president ordered Smith and Carlos to be suspended from the U.S. team. TIME, the nation’s magazine of the day, showed the Olympic logo with the words “Angrier, Nastier, Uglier,” instead of Faster, Higher, Stronger. The LA Times accused Smith and Carlos of “engaging in a Nazi-like salute.” Both runners received racially-injected messages and death threats,
But Smith and Carlos knew the significance of literally ‘taking a stand.’ It was a major, public opportunity to make a statement about Black lives in America–just as Americans are doing today.
It took courage and fortitude to do what they did. Tommie Smith and John Carlos were not public figures before they took their stand, and they had much to lose. They did not have lucrative contracts and they were not hailed nationally for doing what they did (at least not back then). Nevertheless, they still did what they felt they had to do.
Yes, 1968 is a long time ago. But let’s not forget something fundamental: history is telling. And what history is telling us that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Black Lives Matter, America.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3wjBlnxNek
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Frank Fear contributed to the writing of this article.
