Peter Norman, Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the Mexico Olympic Games podium http://m.publico.es/180240 |
1968 had been arguably the saddest year in the 20th Century, outside of the World Wars, and a pessimistic one talking about mankind hopes for a better future. Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr Luther King and Robert Kennedy had been assassinated as Malcolm X and President John Kennedy were sooner in the decade. Tet offensive and My Lai civil massacre had increased domestic opposition to the US involvement in the Vietnam War, while Soviet Union tanks had suffocated Czechoslovakia’s uprising in the spring. Inside the black continent,
John Carlos and Tommie Smith take a break in pre-Olympic days in San Jose Photo: Jeff Kroot http://www.elatleta.com/foro/showthread.php?115970-Fotos-atletismo-cl%C3%A1sico./page43 |
Edwards founded the OPHR (Olympic Project for Human Rights), an association created in a rather spontaneous way, when San Jose black students gathered around him to complain about such things as their troubles to find accommodation near campus, because of the colour of their skin. (1) Seemingly the only black men admitted in that college were the ones with sportive skills and even then efforts were not done to supply them with the necessary conditions for their normal integration into the student community. A scholarship did not mean much and there were the times of amateurism so black athletes needed to earn some money through some small jobs. Thus Tommie Smith, who was the record holder at 11 different events, had to wash cars in his spare time. Black athletes were used to win gold medals for the nation at the Olympic Games and, after that ephemeral moment of glory, Cinderella got back home to keep cleaning floors and be treated like scum again. "For years we have carried the United States on our backs with our victories, and race relations are now worse than ever. It is time for the black people to stand up as men and women and refuse to be utilised as performing animals for a little extra dog food." said Harry Edwards to the New York Times. “We are not a show horse doing a performance, so if we do a good job we get paid some peanuts,” stated John Carlos at Mexico Olympics press conference. (3)
The OHPR articulated this kind of issues, as one of the very first student black associations around the civil rights plight. They communicated to the authorities their decision of boycotting the Games unless they accomplished 10 demands, among them to keep the ban to South Africa and Rhodesia for the Olympic Games, to remove IOC president Avery Brundage, to engage more black coaches and officials (in Mexico Olympic Games there was only one black assistant coach and one member inside the IOC, Jesse Owens) and to reinstate Muhammad Ali. The boxer had been suspended and stripped of his world title after his refusal to go to Vietnam . (1) Ali was punished because he was considered a threat: he was a symbol for all the black community for his sportive prowess, his independence, his affinity with Malcolm X and his angry words against the establishment. “Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights? I ain't got no quarrel with the Vietcong. No Vietcong ever called me Nigger. No, I am not going 10.000 miles to help murder, kill, and burn other people to simply help continue the domination of white slavemasters over dark people the world over. This is the day and age when such evil injustice must come to an end.” (4) Martin Luther King was one of the personalities that manifested his support to the OPHR boycott. He had an interview with John Carlos ten days before his death.
Ron Freeman, Lee Evans and Larry James at the 400m Olympic podium in Mexico http://www.elatleta.com/foro/showthread.php?115970-Fotos-atletismo-cl%C3%A1sico./page11 |
In The US 200 meter medallists’ protest demonstration there was a sort of transgressive elements, each one carrying is own symbologie. (6) Tommie Smith’s glove represented power and John Carlo’s unity, five fingers which can remove together a solid rock and can also lift a mountain if there is a whole nation united on the same aim. (7) Tommie wore a black scarf which meant black pride, while John had a necklace with beads to recall every individual lynched, killed without a prayer or thrown off the boats in the journey to slavery. (8) Carlos uniform was also unzipped in homage to blue collar workers, to the underdogs. Finally, both runners were carrying OPHR badges and came to the ceremony barefooted, showing up black socks. That was to remember all the misery surrounding black lives. “We have kids that do not have shoes even today. They can send a space ship to the moon, or send a probe to Mars, yet they cannot give shoes? They cannot give health care? I am just not naive enough to accept that.” (8) Often Carlos and Smith’s salute has seen as a black power stand but the latter said it was more accurate to describe it as a demonstration asking for civil rights and not only black people ones. Also women, who fought actively for their rights in the next decade, could have perfectly been involved. For him it was not a violent gesture of hate as some stated but of frustration, because he loved his country and wanted it to do better. (2) John Carlos has often been quoted too as beginning his protest in the actual race, where he said he did not give his best and allow Smith to win just to let down white expectations from his country on his "show horse" performance.
The other man on the podium, white Australian PeterNorman, agreed to participate in the stand. He asked for an OPHR badge, which he borrowed from Olympic white American rower, Paul Hoffman. Norman also suggested the idea of splitting Tommie Smith’s gloves, after Carlos had left behind his in his room. The silver medallist, educated in the principles of the Salvation Army disliked the white-only politics back in his own country, where Aborigines were not allowed to vote in federal elections until 1962 and were not counted in the national census until 1967. http://moti-athletics-400-w.blogspot.com/2012/01/cathy-freeman.html He was also aware of the situation of the black community in the country of freedom. "I could not see why a black man was not allowed to drink out of the same water fountain or sit in the same bus or go to the same schools as a white guy. That was just social injustice that I could not do anything about from where I was, but I certainly abhorred it." (9) Norman alludes to the famous episode of activist Rosa Parks who refused to give up her seat on a public bus to make room for a white passenger in 1955, as it was stipulated in the segregated law; an incident which brought to the Montgomery-bus boycott action led by Luther King. Also to James Meredith, who won an appeal at the US Supreme Court in 1962 and thus was the first black citizen admitted to Mississippi University , which he had to reach escorted by the army and 500 Marshalls. White students and anti-desegregation supporters tried to avoid his enrolment in a violent riot, where about 200 members of the Security Forces finished up injured or wounded. In his stage in University, Meredith was often harassed and marginalised by other students but left school with a degree in political science.
The other man on the podium, white Australian Peter
Larry Questad, Tommie Smith and John Carlos in Lake Tahoe, venue of the 1968 Olympic trials
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The US press did not seem to understand the true meaning of Smith, Carlos and Norman's stand. Or maybe it was too embarrassed or with little social sensibility. Time magazine changed the Olympic motto “citius, altius, fortius” to “angrier, nastier, uglier,” describing what happened in Mexico as "a public display of petulance that sparked one of the most unpleasant controversies in Olympic history.” (3) Associated Press talked about “a bizarre demonstration.” One of few voices of support from white America came from Robert Clark, the enlightened president of San Jose State , who praised them as "honourable young men dedicated to the cause of justice for the Black people in our society". (3) Avery Brundage did not like it much either. The IOC criticised Smith and Carlos for "advertising their domestic political views", which amounted to "a deliberate and violent breach of the fundamental principles of the Olympic spirit". (3) Brundage was against mixing politics and Olympic Games and even tried more than once to ban medal tables and national anthems at the medal ceremonies. Yet it was not arguably the true reason of his anger. The US committee did not intend to take any special measure against the athletes but, after the IOC threatened with expelling the whole team from the Olympics, made an embarrassing public apology and gave Smith and Carlos 48 hours to pack their bags and leave the Olympic village.
Jesse Owens was send by the IOC to try to convince the other US black athletes to “behave” during their next visits to the podium but Lee Evans and company shouted him out of the room saying Owens, living now the life of the Avery Brundages, had forgotten he had once suffered the same discrimination than them. "You know, wearing those long black socks is going to cut off the circulation in your legs." (1) Lee Evans wanted to leave too but hisSan Jose State mates came to get him run his race. At the 400m, Evans, Larry James and Ron Freeman swept the whole podium. They walked to the victory stand, aware of death threats against them. "We decided we would smile a lot and show our warmth," said Evans. "It is harder to shoot a guy who is smiling." (10) The trio was wearing black berets, showing their sympathy to the Black Panthers Party, uncovering their heads as the national anthem was heard in the stadium. They wore that long black socks as also did long jumpers Bob Beamon and Ralph Boston. The latter came barefooted to receive his medal as Smith and Carlos had done before. Finally the girls who broke the world record a the 4x100m relay, Margaret Bailes, Barbara Ferrell, Mildrette Netter and Wyomia Tyus, dedicated publicly their victory to Tommie and John. None of them was punished. Besides the US African American athletes, Olympic champion in gymnastics Vera Čáslavská of Czechoslovakia protested against the invasion of her country, quietly turning her head down and away during the playing of the Soviet national anthem. Back home she was banned from competition and international travel for many years.
Jesse Owens was send by the IOC to try to convince the other US black athletes to “behave” during their next visits to the podium but Lee Evans and company shouted him out of the room saying Owens, living now the life of the Avery Brundages, had forgotten he had once suffered the same discrimination than them. "You know, wearing those long black socks is going to cut off the circulation in your legs." (1) Lee Evans wanted to leave too but his
Avery Brundage had all that it takes to be named for the 20th century Hall of Shame. For the 1936 Olympiad he was the president of the United States Olympic Committee. Some personalities proposed to boycott the Berlin Games, because Jews were excluded in sport. Brundage went to
Tommie Smith and John Carlos carry the coffee of old-fellow Olympian Peter Norman http://www.woniac.com.tr/siyah-eldiven-ve-ciplak-ayaklar |
Tommie Smith started to see the light as he moved to Ohio and someone eventually took the risk of employing him as a track and field coach at Oberlin College , where he became a sociology teacher too. Later he would be working in Santa Monica . John Carlos became also an athletic coach at Palm Springs High School and a guidance counsellor, serving mostly a Hispanic community. His public rehabilitation and Tommie’s began some years before as he was hired by the president of the organising committee of the 1984 Los Angeles Games, Peter Ueberroth, as a special consultant on minority affairs. Who cared anymore about a stand at the Olympics when politics had brought to three consecutive massive boycotts? Mentalities were also changing. In 2004 a statue was erected in Tommie Smith and John Carlos’ alma mater San Jose State University to honour them. A young white student called Erik Grotz took the first steps on this initiative and also participated Alfonso de Alba, an immigrant who was born in Mexico City the 26th October 1968, the day of the famous civil rights stand. The same year Matt Norman, Peter nephew, directed a documentary called “Salute”, which for the first time brought the three medallists in a room to tell their story of that day in Mexico . In the last years, both Smith (2) and Carlos (13) have also published their autobiography. In 2008 both American athletes were given the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage. Two years before, Peter Norman, who remained a lifelong friend and was called by John Carlos “my brother”, died from a heart attack. His two companions at Mexico Olympics podium travelled to Australia to be pallbearers at his funeral. Also Lee Evans, who for more than 20 years rediscovered his roots helping Nigerian sprinters to make the way to the elite, is currently battling a brain tumour.
Tommie Smith and John Carlos consider themselves not as heroes but just as survivors and still keep the fire of their younger years and as a prove the latter was seen joining Occupy Wall Street, giving advice to the youth. They have a critical point of view about nowadays issues and the new generation. Both athletes made a sacrifice to fight for a better future for their children and they can be only half happy. Carlos says the black mistreatment in the South continues but now it has been “cosmetically disguised”. An African American has become the US president and former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamaal has been at last removed from the death row, but capital punishment still stands in the country of freedom for many others. Black men incarceration has grown to up to 5 times in comparison to 20 years ago, making the 39% of the total of people in jail. Also 27% of the black population is considered to be living in poverty, nearly double the overall US rate. (13) The US keep invading foreign countries and applying the law of Talion instead of forgiveness. Winds of xenophobia are blowing strongly all over the world and the global economic crisis allows governments to set a dictatorship of the capital, impinging on the helpless citizen constitutional rights. Smith and Carlos also complain about the lack of social conscience in the new generation of sportspeople, who do clinics at Beverly Hills or Malibu , instead of in the hood they were born. (7) http://moti-athletics-100-w.blogspot.com/2012/02/one-thousand-reasons.html Delegates from poor countries have joined the formerly elitist IOC and IAAF and these organisations have invested in developing the practise of sport in the third world as a vehicle of cultural and social progress. http://moti-athletics-400h-w.blogspot.com/2012/01/nawal-el-moutawakel.html Anyway, a country as Saudi Arabia has not been banned yet from the Olympic Games, in spite of strongly discriminating females in the practise of sport inside the country and it is not enough if they send a random girl to London to run the 100m. (14) We need new men and women with Tommie Smith and John Carlos’s unbreakable spirit to keep the struggle on.
Speed City legends back in 1968, including Tommie Smith, John Carlos and Lee Evans Photographer: Jeff Kroot http://www.elatleta.com/foro/showthread.php?115970-Fotos-atletismo-cl%C3%A1sico./page62 |
(10) http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1066133/1/index.htm
(11) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avery_Brundage
(12) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7674157.stm
(13) http://www.opposingviews.com/i/sports/sports-connection-troy-davis-john-carlos-and-taking-stand
(14) http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/16/sports/olympics/olympic-ban-on-saudi-arabia-is-urged-over-lack-of-female-athletes.html
(11) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avery_Brundage
(12) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7674157.stm
(13) http://www.opposingviews.com/i/sports/sports-connection-troy-davis-john-carlos-and-taking-stand
(14) http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/16/sports/olympics/olympic-ban-on-saudi-arabia-is-urged-over-lack-of-female-athletes.html