Salute of "Hope and Defiance": Black Power at 1968 Olympics ~ Emerald Quill

Feb 10, 2014

Salute of "Hope and Defiance": Black Power at 1968 Olympics

2/10/2014 Celestine Green No comments

African-American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos outraged the Olympic Committee by presenting the Black Power salute as an act of protest during their medal ceremony at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. Their political gesture influenced civil rights history.

On the morning of 16 October 1968, U.S.A. athlete Tommie Smith won the gold medal in the 200 meter race with a world-record time of 19.83 seconds. Australia's Peter Norman finished second with a time of 20.06 seconds, and the U.S.A.'s John Carlos won the bronze medal with a time of 20.10 seconds. After the race was completed, the three went to the podium for their medals to be presented. All three were wearing Olympic Project for Human Rights badges.

The two U.S. athletes received their medals shoeless, but wearing black socks, to represent black poverty. Smith wore a black scarf around his neck to represent black pride, Carlos had his tracksuit top unzipped to show solidarity with all blue collar workers in the U.S. and wore a necklace of beads which he described "were for those individuals that were lynched, or killed and 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."

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. 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 (IOC) president Avery Brundage deemed the salute to be a domestic political statement unfit for the apolitical, international forum the Olympic Games were supposed to be. A spokesman for the IOC said it was "a deliberate and violent breach of the fundamental principles of the Olympic spirit." Brundage, who was president of the United States Olympic Committee in 1936, had made no objections against Nazi salutes during the Berlin Olympics. He argued that the Nazi salute, being a national salute at the time, was acceptable in a competition of nations, while the Black athletes' salute was not of a nation and therefore unacceptable.

Brundage had been one of the United States' most prominent Nazi sympathizers even after the outbreak of the Second World War, and his removal as president of the IOC had been one of the three stated objectives of the Olympic Project for Human Rights. Smith and Carlos were suspended from the U.S. team, expelled from the games, and banned from the Olympic Village.

Back home, Smith and Carlos were largely ostracized by the U.S. sporting establishment and they were subject to criticism. They were subjected to abuse and they and their families received death threats.

“We were just human beings who saw a need to bring attention to the inequality in our country,” Smith said years later, in a documentary on the 1968 Mexico City games produced for HBO. “I don’t like the idea of people looking at it as negative. There was nothing but a raised fist in the air and a bowed head, acknowledging the American flag — not symbolizing a hatred for it.”

Smith continued in athletics, playing in the NFL with the Cincinnati Bengals before becoming an assistant professor of physical education at Oberlin College. In 1995, he helped coach the U.S. team at the World Indoor Championships at Barcelona. In 1999 he was awarded the California Black Sportsman of the Millennium Award. He is now a public speaker.

Carlos' career followed a similar path. He tied the 100 yard dash world record the following year. He later played in the NFL with the Philadelphia Eagles until a knee injury prematurely ended his career. He fell upon hard times in the late 1970s. In 1977, his ex-wife committed suicide, leading him to a period of depression. In 1982, Carlos was employed by the Organizing Committee for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles to promote the games and act as liaison with the city's black community. In 1985, he became a track and field coach at Palm Springs High School. As of 2012, Carlos works as a counselor at the school.

It should be noted that Australia’s silver medalist Peter Norman, who was sympathetic to his competitors' protest, was reprimanded by his country's Olympic authorities and ostracized by the Australian media. He was not picked for the 1972 Summer Olympics, despite having qualified 13 times over. Four decades later, Smith and Carlos were pallbearers at Norman's funeral in 2006.

The 2008 Sydney Film Festival featured a documentary about the protest entitled Salute. The film was written, directed and produced by Matt Norman, a nephew of Peter Norman.