Inspirational Olympic Stories # 2: The Black Power Salute

With only 53 days left for the Olympic games in London, we continue our Inspirational Olympic Stories list.

“I don’t know anything that builds the will to win better than competitive sports” said Richard Nixon a long time back. True, isn’t it? No discipline in life makes you that hungry, that dedicated and that competitive than sports. The Olympic Games are the highest order of competitive sports and the incidents which took place at the Olympics have changed the very face of this world.

# 2 – Tommy Smith and John Carlos’ Salute

When Tommy Smith and John Carlos stood frozen with their fists aloft on the podium on 16th October 1968, they would have never imagined the impact that their action would have on this world.

The Civil Rights movement was raging all across the United States of America. The assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King also oiled the whole thing. The African American students were clearly being discriminated at America. Despite having scholarships, they were made to study in a separate classroom, they had to get their ‘white’ friends to sign their lease for apartments and they were hardly permitted to use the training facilities. Smith and Carlos were students at the San Jose State University and they were well aware of the unprecedented situation that their country was facing.

Harry Edwards, a teacher at San Jose and an active sociologist wanted all African-American athletes to pull out of the 1968 games but the movement failed to gather enough reception. In the build up to the games, Smith had commented that all they needed was an equal chance to be a human-being. The chances of a protest at the 1968 games were getting slimmer as many athletes feared what that might do to their careers. However, Smith and Carlos were ready to take up the charge.

Smith finishes the race

With a struggle to make a political statement, Smith started the 200m final race and won gold medal clocking 19.83 seconds. It was a world record which stood for 11 years. Carlos came third while Australia’s Peter Norman came second.

In the athletes room named the “dungeon”, all three were talking. Norman recalled the event,

“They involved me in the conversation. It wasn’t a secret huddle, they were letting me know. It was my suggestion that they split Tommie’s gloves because John had left his back in his room. [Then] I said to John: ‘You got another one of those badges?’ ‘If I get you one, will you wear it?’ he asked. ‘I sure would,’ I replied.”

The Salute

Peter Norman did it. A white man wore a human rights badge just to show his support for his fellow athletes. But now, it was Smith and Carlos’ moment. The national anthem of the United States of America was playing in the background and that was when Smith and Carlos bowed their heads and shot their fists to the sky.

Both the athletes went into the podium without shoes, wearing only black socks depicting the poverty that the black people faced. Smith wore a black scarf to portray the pride that he had. Carlos wore beads to depict the lynchings of the people from his race. Against Olympic protocol, both men unzipped their track suit to honor the blue collar workers.

The action was widely criticized by various organizations. Both the athletes were banned from the Olympic Games and the reaction back home too was not very good. Time Magazine described the events as “Angrier, Nastier and Uglier”. Their lives were totally changed. Smith commented,

“Folks were scared, man. No jobs. We couldn’t find work. People even told us, ‘We can’t get close to you guys because we have our own jobs to protect.’ These were my friends. At least, they were my friends before I left for Mexico City.”

They lost their jobs and were struggling for money. Peter Norman too was not spared. He was heavily criticized by the media and was dropped from the Australian team. When he died in 2006, Carlos and Smith were his pall-bearers.

The Courage Award

These words from Smith summed it all,

“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.”

As the new millennium began, Smith and Carlos’ actions were getting justified. In 2005, San Jose State University unveiled the statue of that iconic podium image. The inscription near the statue reads “Tommie Smith and John Carlos stood for justice, dignity, equality and peace and thus, the University and Students association commemorates their legacy. They were also awarded ESPYs Arthur Ashe Courage Award in 2008.

It takes guts to do what these two did almost 44 years ago. Tommy Smith and John Carlos demonstrated the most enduring and courageous act of sports in modern athletic history. Their profound act against oppression will stand till the end of the days.

Here is a beautiful recap of all the events that took place in 1968

Here’s the other entries that made it to our list -

# 1 – Derek Redmond and the Spirit of Olympics