Everything started with this image to the right. During the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, Tommie Smith (US, gold), Peter Norman (Australia, silver), and John Carlos (US, bronze) have each competed in the Track and Field competition of the Olympics. The Star-Spangled Banner plays in the background as the medals are passed out; both Smith and Carlos (Smith in the middle and Carlos to the right), wearing black gloves, held their fists high in the air in semblance of the black power salute. It represented "resistance and defiance" (The Mexico City Olympics of 1968).
In life, there's the beginning and the end," he says. "The beginning don't matter. The end don't matter. All that matters is what you do in between – whether you're prepared to do what it takes to make change. There has to be physical and material sacrifice. When all the dust settles and we're getting ready to play down for the ninth inning, the greatest reward is to know that you did your job when you were here on the planet.""In life, there's the beginning and the end," he says. "The beginning don't matter. The end don't matter. All that matters is what you do in between – whether you're prepared to do what it takes to make change. There has to be physical and material sacrifice. When all the dust settles and we're getting ready to play down for the ninth inning, the greatest reward is to know that you did your job when you were here on the planet." -John Carlos
Carlos and Smith, in protest to the unfair and racist remarks at training arenas and games, held their ground as over 50,000 people go quiet, then people started to throw things and scream racist abuse towards them (Cosgrove). Within a few days this story and picture went out to everyone around the globe. It was on the front-page news; the U.S. Olympic officials, were forced by the International Olympic Committee, had suspended both of medalists from the games and from the Olympic Village (Brinkley) (Anderson).
"We were just human beings who saw a need to bring attention to the inequality in our country,” Smith says in a documentary on the 1968 Mexico games on HBO. “I don’t like the idea of people looking at it as negative (The Mexico City Olympics of 1968). There was nothing but a raised fist in the air and a bowed head, acknowledging the American flag—not symbolizing a hatred for it.” Norman also took part in the protest, "we knew that what we were going to do was far greater than any athletic feat," Carlos says, "I'll stand with you" Norman replies before the Star-Spangles Banner was played. "Carlos expected to see fear in Peter Norman’s eyes before the medal ceremony, when there was no turning back from what they were about to do. But he didn’t see fear." “I saw love,” he said." (Cosgrove).
African-American athletes talked about joining the boycott of the Games to protest against the racial inequalities in the United States- but it never fully played out. For 4 0 years after the 1968 protest, both Smith and Carlos faced threats once they retuned to the States (The Man Who Raised a Black Power Salute at the 1968 Olympic Games). It had gotten to the point where they were "black-skinned storm troopers," says Brent Musburger who was a reporter for the Chicago American newspaper- and anonymous death threats. Carlos didn't think of it as anything to serious until his wife's suicide in 1977, "One minute everything was sunny and happy, the next minute was chaos and crazy," Carlos states (Anderson).
I don't have any misgivings about it being frozen in time. It's a beacon for a lot of people around the world. So many people find inspiration in that portrait. That's what I was born for." - John Carlos
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