The 1968 US Olympic track and field team is
considered one of the greatest ever assembled
to represent the US in the Olympics.
They won 28 medals and set 8 world records
at the games in Mexico City.
The team included some of the fastest runners
in the world at the time.
Like sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos,
who made history when they accepted their
medals and then raised their fists during
the playing of the US national anthem, in
a protest full of symbolism.
And they almost didn’t even show up that
year.
Members of the team threatened to stay home,
in protest of racist treatment of Black athletes
in America.
The story of this silent protest, and the
boycott that almost was, starts with the buttons
all three medal winners wore that day:
The Olympic Project for Human Rights.
The Olympic Project for Human Rights, or OPHR,
was founded in 1967 by sociologist, educator,
and former star athlete Dr. Harry Edwards.
It was a coalition of prominent Olympic athletes
that threatened to derail American Olympic
glory by opting out of the games.
To protest the racism in sports that had for
decades gone unaddressed.
In the mid-20th century, sports seemed to
be a leading example of improved racial equality
in the United States.
Black athletes like football player Kenny
Washington and baseball player Jackie Robinson
broke racial barriers by joining professional
leagues in 1946 and 1947.
Which until that point, had been whites only.
College and professional sports teams gradually
integrated from there –
– years ahead of racial segregation legally
ending in the United States.
So the media began to promote the Black athlete
as a symbol that racial democracy existed
in the United States.
And so it was kind of a factor that was used
to dismiss the question of institutionalized
racism.
But in the 1960s, the myth of racial progress
in America began to dissolve.
The Civil Rights Act ended legal segregation
in 1964, but Black Americans continued to
face institutionalized racism and police brutality.
Integration simply wasn’t successful in
improving Black people’s lives, and you
needed to force further change.
Years of frustration ultimately erupted in
widespread violent riots.
I think the further we get away from it, we
underestimate the influence of the riots.
The riots happened in a lot of urban cities
across America.
Black people still live in terrible socioeconomic
conditions in the cities.
And that was just as much a problem as Jim
Crow laws.
So how do you attract attention to that?
A growing Black Power movement and Black student
movement in the 1960s emboldened Black athletes
to speak up about the racial injustices they
endured off
the field.
But with the 1968 Olympics coming up, black
athletes saw an opportunity to push for change.
The the idea of a black Olympic boycott had
been around since 1959.
And it went through various fits and stops
until you get to the first Black Power Conference
in 1967.
And the Black Power Conference basically argued
that you should use any means possible to
force the government to pay attention to institutionalized
racism.
For Harry Edwards, that meant organizing the
Olympic Project for Human Rights.
He realized that he could use Black sports
participation as a way to attract attention
to the problem.
The OPHR had 5 key demands, among them being
to disinvite South Africa and Rhodesia, two
countries practicing apartheid, from competing
in the games,
the removal of openly racist International
Olympic Committee President Avery Brundage,
and hiring Black coaches to US teams.
The potential boycott became a hot topic in
the news –
– and of debate among athletes.
In the months leading up to the games in Mexico
City, the OPHR kept members of the press guessing
whether they would attend or not.
Ultimately, it came down to a vote.
The decision was made that if there wasn’t
a kind of unified or the majority of Black
athletes would participate, the boycott would
be called off.
Because those who did boycott, like Tommie
Smith, would have been boycotting in vain.
Another Black person simply would have taken
their place.
Even though most of the OPHR’s demands remained
unmet, the athletes headed to Mexico City,
with plans to make their own demonstration
if the opportunity arose.
Which it did – on October 16th, following
the men’s 200 meter final.
OPHR members Tommie Smith and John Carlos
won gold and bronze, respectively, and Smith
set a new world record.
After the race, they solemnly approached the
medal stand –
shoeless, wearing black socks...
...accepted their medals....
...and, just as the US National Anthem began
to play, did this:
[Star-Spangled Banner playing]
For the full duration of the Star-Spangled
Banner, Smith and Carlos bowed their heads
and each raised a black-gloved fist in the
air – to protest the racial injustice in
their home country, and show solidarity with
those fighting for equality.
[Star-Spangled Banner playing]
The fists are not the only symbolic gesture
in this image, as Tommie Smith explained later:
The right glove signified the power within
Black America.
The left glove signified Black unity.
The scarf that was worn around my neck signified
Blackness.
John Carlos and me wore black socks without
shoes to also signify our poverty.
Additionally, John Carlos wore his jacket
unzipped – a violation of Olympic etiquette
– to show solidarity with working class
Americans.
He also wore black beads – to honor victims
of lynching.
And finally, all three medal winners, including
silver medalist Peter Norman of Australia,
wore…
Buttons reading Olympic Project for Human
Rights. The were some boos in the stadium
last night.
This moment was the ultimate manifestation
of the work of Harry Edwards and the OPHR
to intersect outspoken political activism
with sport.
And it ended Smith and Carlos’ Olympics.
The International Olympic Committee suspended
them Friday, their credentials were taken
away, and they were told they could not stay
in Mexico.
They were dropped from the US Olympic team...
...and given 48 hours to leave Mexico.
Sports journalist Howard Cosell criticized
the US Olympic Committee’s decision in this
fiery broadcast from Mexico City.
But the Black athlete says he is a human being
before he is an athlete.
That he wants equality everywhere, not just
within the arena.
Tommie Smith and John Carlos were saying,
“Black athletes don’t have it made in
American society.”
“We may be famous, but we face the same
discrimination that other Black people do.
And we don’t appreciate being used as a
way to counter the Black struggle coming out
of Black communities.”
Black athletes are Black.
People have multiple identities.
I think Colin Kaepernick is representing a
voice in the Black community which is the
same thing I think that Carlos and Smith were
saying.
That the Black struggle is more than just
about integration and assimilation, it’s
also about empowering this particular community.
And people like Tommie Smith, Harry Edwards,
John Carlos, came from poor Black communities.
Which is why this protest on the Olympic medal
stand wasn’t just about sports.
As Tommie Smith explained to Howard Cosell
the next day.
Do you think you represented all Black athletes
in doing this?
I can say I represented Black America.
I’m very proud to be a Black man, and also
to have won a gold medal.
And this, I thought, I could represent my
people by letting them know that I’m proud
to be a Black man.
