A CHEQUERED HISTORY
Right from the 1936 Berlin Olympics to the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, sport has often stood witness to athletes raising their voices against racial injustice for which they sometimes had to suffer.
1936
Mack Robinson finished second in 200m behind Jesse Owens at the Berlin Olympics. On his return, to the USA, the only job Robinson could find was that of a street sweeper. In a silent protest, Robinson wore his Olympic jacket while working in a white neighbourhood.
1960
Muhammad Ali threw his gold medal, from the 1960 Rome Olympics, in the Ohio River after he was refused service at a resaturant in Louisville. “They said, ‘We don't serve niggers here.’.. So I went down to the river, the Ohio River, and threw my gold medal in it,” Ali wrote in his autobiography.
1961
Bill Russell and other black members of the Boston Celtics were refused service at a restaurant before an exhibition game in Lexington, Kentucky. In protest, they boycotted the game.
1968
Two American athletes, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, after finishing first and third respectively in 200m at the Mexico City Olympics, stepped onto the podium shoe-less but with black socks on (to represent black poverty). Both raised their hands wearing black gloves--the black power salute-- during the national anthem to protest against racism. This was in the backdrop of widespread unrest in the US, with the assassinations of civil rights activist Medgar Evers, President John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. and passages of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. Smith and Carlos were suspended from the US team which ended their careers.
■ Basil D'oliveira was an English cricketer of Indian-portuguese descent, who had emigrated from South Africa to England in 1960. When he was called up to the Test squad to tour South Africa, the African country's Prime Minister made it clear that his inclusion was not acceptable. England cancelled the tour and SA was excluded from international cricket for 22 years.
1976
Viv Richards wore a wristband in the colours of the Rastafari movement during West Indies' 1976 series in England after Tony Greig said his team will make the visitors ‘grovel’. “Green for the land of Africa. Gold for the wealth that was stripped away. Red for the blood that was shed,” Richards explained in a documentary later.
1996
Denver Nuggets’ Mahmoud Abdul-rauf refused to stand for “The Star-spangled Banner” before games, saying that the flag was symbol of oppression. The NBA suspended him.
2012
Lebron James, Dwayne Wade and others donned hoodies after African-american Trayvon Martin, who was walking home in Chicago wearing a hoodie, was shot by a White man.
2014
Lebron James and Kyrie Irving were among several NBA players who wore “I Can’t Breathe” T-shirts before their games on December 8. It was a reference to the last words of Eric Garner, who died in the custody of New York City police.
2016
San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the national anthem before his preseason debut to protest against racism and police brutality.