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

 

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.

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Black Nobel Peace Price Winners

 

The Nobel Prize is one of the most prestigious awards given for intellectual achievement in the world. In the will he drafted in 1895, Alfred Bernhard Nobel instructed that most of his fortune be set aside as a fund for the awarding of five annual prizes “to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind.” These prizes as established by his will are the Nobel Prize for Physics, the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, the Nobel Prize for Literature, and the Nobel Prize for Peace. The first distribution of the prizes took place on December 10, 1901, the fifth anniversary of Nobel's death.



In total, there have been 16 Black Nobel Prize winners; 12 of them being Peace prize recipients. Martin Luther King Jr. (1964), Nelson Mandela (1993), and Barack Obama (2009), are some of the most well- known of all the prestigious recipients.



Martin Luther King, Jr; Barack Obama; Nelson Mandela

 You might also be familiar with other winners i.e. Egypt’s former President Anwar al-Sadat, Anglican Bishop Desmond Tutu, and seventh Secretary-General of the UN Kofi Atta Annan. Listed below are other Nobel Peace Prize winners you may not know.

 

Ralph Johnson Bunche was an American political scientist and diplomat who received the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize for his late 1940s mediation in Palestine. He was the first person of color to be so honored in the history of the Prize. He was the grandson of a slave and graduated summa cum laude in 1927 from UCLA as valedictorian of his class. In 1934 he became the first African American to earn a doctorate in political science from Harvard.

Bunche’s legendary work caught the attention of then-President Harry Truman, who wanted the mediator to join his cabinet as the assistant Secretary of State. Bunche reportedly turned the job down, because he realized his family would endure racism and segregation despite his weighty job title.

Albert Luthuli was a South African teacher and politician. Luthuli was elected president of the African National Congress (ANC), at the time an umbrella organization that led opposition to the white minority government in South Africa. He was awarded the 1960 Nobel Peace Prize for his role in the non-violent struggle against apartheid. He was the first African, and the first person from outside Europe and the Americas, to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

 

Wangari Muta Mary Jo Maathai was a Kenyan environmental and political activist. She was educated in the United States at Mount St. Scholastica and the University of Pittsburgh, as well as the University of Nairobi in Kenya. In the 1970s, Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement, an environmental non-governmental organization focused on the planting of trees, environmental conservation, and women’s rights. In 1986, she was awarded the Right Livelihood Award, and in 2004, she became the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for “her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace.” Maathai was an elected member of Parliament and served as assistant minister for Environment and Natural Resources in the government of President Mwai Kibaki between January 2003 and November 2005. In September 2011, Maathai died of complications from ovarian cancer.

 

Ellen Sirleaf; Tawakel Karman; Leymah Gbowee

The 2011 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to three women from African and Arab countries, for their roles as activists.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is the 24th and current President of Liberia. She served as Minister of Finance under President William Tolbert from 1979 until the 1980 coup d’état, after which she left Liberia and held senior positions at various financial institutions. She placed a very distant second in the 1997 presidential election. Later, she was elected President in the 2005 presidential election and took office on 16 January 2006. Sirleaf is the first and currently the only elected female head of state in Africa.

Tawakel Karman is a Yemeni politician who is a senior member of Al-Islah and a human rights activist who heads the group Women Journalists Without Chains that she created in 2005. She, along with Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Leymah Gbowee, were awarded the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize “for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work”.

Leymah Roberta Gbowee is an African peace activist responsible for organising a peace movement that brought an end to the Second Liberian Civil War in 2003. This led to the election of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in Liberia, the first African nation with a female president.She, along with Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Tawakkul Karman, were awarded the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize “for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work”.

 

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Obama's Actions Speak Louder Than Words

When the Norwegian Nobel Peace Prize Committee surprised the world by giving the 2009 Award to U. S. President Barack Obama, the controversy was widespread and everyone had an opinion. President Obama was chosen from 205 nominees which some found appalling vs. those that saw the selection as amazing. Even as recent as 2013, detractors have sought the means to revoke the Peace Award he was granted. Recently, however, the historic negotiations with Iran to find a sensible halt to their nuclear program have netted our leader comparisons to Nixon's opening the "gate" to China and Reagan relationship with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. It appears the President is fulfilling his promises to usher in a "“new era of American leadership, one that turned the page on a decade of war.” Robert Scheer details the President's current peace efforts in a recent article in The Nation.

As apparent in his 2012 State of the Union Address, President Obama has consistently championed education as a vital component to our nation's growth and well-being. His efforts to spark a dead and unproductive Congress to action is a matter of record. But, little publized facts show he put his money where his mouth is when he received 1.4 million dollars with his Nobel Peace Prize Award.

President Obama contributed his awards dollars primarily to educational foundations and ventures. The Posse Foundation which helps nontraditional high school students get into college was one recipient of his donations. The United Negro College Fund, Hispanic Fund, American Indian College Fund received funds also. Central Asia Institute received funds to help educate girl's in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Africare was also listed as a recipient from the disbursement. Fisher House received $250,000 and the Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund received $200,000.

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The Roots, Purpose, and Evolution of Black History Month

Did you ever wonder why February was chosen as Black History Month? Do you know how the Black Panther Movement impacted this celebration of Black History? I thought I knew all about Black History Month, but as usual, I was wrong. Just a few minutes on Biography.com, absorbing information about its roots, purpose and evolution showed me just how much I did not know. Let's see if you'll learn some things in this blog post that you did not know. Hopefully, the journey will reawaken your interest in Black History and create a sense of urgency about supporting a continued  appreciation of the effort.

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Let's Talk Black History: Unknown Contributors to the Struggle

Well, it's February 2014. During Black History Month, we can count on hearing about the historic contributions of Frederick Douglass, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., W.E.B. DuBois, Marcus Garvey and even President Barack Obama. However, there are many unsung heroes who have contributed to our nation growth and prosperity while advancing the condition of African Americans..

Irene Morgan

You may well know Rosa Parks and her role in the civil rights struggle, but can you tell me about the contributions of Bayard Rustin, Irene Morgan, Charles Hamilton Houston, and Pauli Murray? Oprah Winfrey and Madame C. J. Walker  are well known African Americans who become millionaires and contributed generously to move the struggle forward. Are you familiar with Annie Turnbo Malone, William Still and Benjamin "Pap" Singleton who also used their fortunes to change the fabric of America and the lives of the country's African American population?

 

Charles Hamilton Houston

Paul Robson is an American icon. Among his other accomplishments, he was famous for his portrayal of Shakespeare's Othello, but do you know who wowed British audiences playing Othello in the early 1820s and donned "white face" to play the title role in Richard III?

 

William Still

It has been said by some naysayers that you can keep information from a Black person if you put it in a book. There are African Americans who "put it in a book" and preserved important account of African American lives. Are you familiar with the "Father of the Underground Railroad" and his meticulous accounts of slaves escaping to freedom? The Philadelphia Press employed a  correspondent to detail the lives of America's Black troops during the Civil War. In 1902, a Black woman published her memoir,  Reminiscences of My Life in Camp, which preserved vital information about the Black experience during the Civil War. 

 



In 1864, the son of a slave and her master published Clotel: the President's Daughter widely considered the first novel by an African American. The story line was controversial tracing several mix raced descendants of Thomas Jefferson, a reference to Jefferson's long rumored relationship with Sally Hemings. In addition to his other novels, this author was an abolitionist, lecturer, playwright, and historian.

 

Inquiring minds want to know the answers to all these questions and the stories of these unsung heroes. Visit Ronda Racha Penrice's article in the Grio about 13 unknown African Americans and their contributions to the struggle. Most of these quite warriors were unknown to me, but I enjoyed expanding my knowledge of African American history in the U.S.

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