The Black Power salute was a noted human rights protest and one of the most overtly political statements in the 110 year history of the modern Olympic Games. African American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos performed their Black Power salute at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City.
The protest
After completing their 200 metre race on the evening of October 16, 1968,[1] American athlete Smith, who won the race in a then world record time of 19.83 seconds, with Australia's Peter Norman second with a time of 20.06 seconds and American Carlos in third place with a time of 20.10 seconds, went to collect their medals at the podium. The two American athletes received their medals shoeless, but wearing black socks, to represent black poverty.[2] Smith wore a black scarf around his neck to represent black pride.[2] Carlos wore beads which he described "were for those individuals that were lynched, or killed that no-one said a prayer for, that were hung and tarred. It was for those thrown off the side of the boats in the middle passage."[3] All three athletes wore Olympic Project for Human Rights (OPHR) badges, after Norman expressed sympathy with their ideals. Sociologist Harry Edwards, the founder of the OPHR, had urged black athletes to boycott the games; reportedly, the actions of Smith and Carlos on October 16, 1968,[1] were inspired by Edwards' arguments.[4]
Carlos had forgotten his black gloves, but Norman suggested that they share Smith's pair, with Smith wearing the right glove and Carlos the left. When "The Star-Spangled Banner" played, Smith and Carlos delivered the salute with heads bowed, a gesture which became front page news around the world. As they left the podium they were booed by the crowd.[5] Smith later said "If I win, I am American, not a black American. But if I did something bad, then they would say I am a Negro. We are black and we are proud of being black. Black America will understand what we did tonight."
International Olympic Committee response
IOC president Avery Brundage deemed a domestic political statement unfit for the apolitical, international forum the Olympic Games was supposed to be. In an immediate response to their actions, he ordered Smith and Carlos suspended from the U.S. team and banned from the Olympic Village. When the US Olympic Committee refused, Avery threatened to ban the entire US track team. This threat led to the two athletes being expelled from the Games.
A spokesperson for the organization said it was "a deliberate and violent breach of the fundamental principles of the Olympic spirit."[2]
Aftermath
Smith and Carlos were largely ostracised by the U.S. sporting establishment in the following years and in addition were subject to criticism of their actions. A writer in the Los Angeles Times accused Smith and Carlos of a "Nazi-like salute."[attribution needed] Time magazine showed the five-ring Olympic logo with the words, "Angrier, Nastier, Uglier", instead of "Faster, Higher, Stronger". Back home they were subject to abuse and they and their families received death threats.[6]
Smith continued in athletics and in the promotion of equal rights. He went on to play American football with the Cincinnati Bengals, before becoming an assistant professor of Physical Education at Oberlin College. In 1995 he went on to help coach the U.S. team at the World Indoor Championships at Barcelona. In 1999 he was awarded a Sportsman of the Millennium award. He is now a public speaker.
Carlos' career followed a similar path to Smith. He initially continued in athletics, equaling the 100m world record the following year. Later he played American football with the Philadelphia Eagles before a knee injury prematurely ended his career. He fell upon hard times in the late 1970s and in 1977 his wife committed suicide. In 1985 he became a track and field coach at a school in Palm Springs, a post which he still holds.
Norman, who was sympathetic to his competitors' protest, was reprimanded by his Country's Olympic authorities and ostracized by the Australian media.[7] He was not picked for the 1972 Summer Olympics, despite finishing third in his trials. He kept running, but contracted gangrene in 1985 after tearing his Achilles tendon, which nearly led to his leg being amputated. Depression and heavy drinking followed. He died on October 3, 2006. Smith and Carlos were pallbearers at his funeral.[8]
San Jose State University honored former students Smith and Carlos with a twenty foot high statue of their protest in 2005. In January 2007, History San José opened a new exhibit called Speed City: From Civil Rights to Black Power, covering the San Jose State University athletic program "from which many student athletes became globally recognized figures as the Civil Rights and Black Power movements reshaped American society."[9]