After a half century, fight still unfinished
Black-gloved protest by Smith, Carlos at 1968 Olympics now seen as an act of courage — and a vibrant reminder of racism in the United States
SAN JOSE >> Tommie Smith came to San Jose State University as a sharecropper’s son who picked cotton while growing up in the San Joaquin Valley. John Carlos arrived from the tough streets of Harlem, the son of Cuban-Americans.
Wednesday, they returned to the campus where the seeds of their protest were planted. Fifty years ago, on Oct. 16, 1968, the two San Jose State sprinters stood on the Olympic podium in Mexico City and raised their black-gloved fists to bring attention to the same issues that confront America today.
“It is very sad nationally that two young athletes had to do what they were doing to bring attention to racism,” Smith, 74, said Wednesday during a commemoration of one of the most iconic moments in Olympic history.
The protest continues to resonate a half-century later, particularly with the highly charged tenor coursing through society today. Whether it is Colin Kaepernick’s protest of police brutality by taking a knee during the playing of the national anthem or teams such as the Warriors refusing to visit the White House after winning championships, athletes find themselves facing questions similar to what Smith and Carlos once faced.
The Mexico City Games came amid great civil unrest in the U.S. There had been race riots in many major cities, a growing anti-war movement across the country, student demonstrations at the 1968 Democratic National Convention and the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy.
Before the Games, Smith and Carlos had met Harry Edwards, a young sociology professor at San Jose State who later became better known for his work with the 49ers and other professional sports teams in the Bay Area. Edwards had started a movement called the Olympic Project for Human Rights. Smith and Carlos were among the group of San Jose State track athletes to join the cause.
There was talk among the movement of an African-American boycott of the
“Someone had to come out of the ground like a rare piece of grass to let society know it is not as the picture presents itself.” — John Carlos, on the ripple effect of the raised fists he and Tommie Smith put up
Olympics. It never took root, but for Smith and Carlos an idea was planted. It came to fruition when they finished first and third in the 200 meters, Smith winning gold, Carlos the bronze.
“When the racing was all said and done, I got a godly smile on my face,” Carlos recalled. “Now let’s get busy, let’s get down to what I came here for.”
They accepted their medals, then waited for the playing of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The sprinters thrust their fists into the night sky, each wearing one black glove. Stunned fans sat quietly.
“Someone had to come out of the ground like a rare piece of grass to let society know it is not as the picture presents itself,” Carlos told this news organization in June.
He added Wednesday, “We wanted to reach the far ends of the Earth. We were like a road map, a new paradigm.”
Although the sprinters have never been close, they have traveled in parallel universes as reviled Olympians.
Decades later, their legacies have been restored. A 22-foot statue erected in 2005 at San Jose State pays tribute to what many now consider a courageous act.
That moment so long ago remains poignant in sports primarily because Kaepernick, another Bay Area athlete, took a singular stance two years ago while with the 49ers. Like the Olympians before him, the quarterback wanted to focus on racial inequalities underscored by a handful of police shootings of young African-American men.
“Everybody got uptight about the fists, just like this young man Kaepernick,” Carlos said Wednesday. “Somebody put a spin on that — he is anti-flag, he is anti-military. That is far from the truth.”
Carlos, 73, who became an educator in Southern California before retiring and moving to the East Coast, is still fighting the fight.
“I’m ready to put my shoulders in and charge even greater,” he said Wednesday after a halfday symposium sponsored by the school’s Institute for the Study of Sport, Society and Social Change.
Speaking to this news organization in June while in Oakland, Carlos said, “America is the greatest nation on the planet, but we need to start acting like the greatest nation on the planet, and we’re not doing that with this president in the office.”
Wyomia Tyus, the first person to win consecutive Olympic titles in the 100 meters in 1964 and ’68, sometimes wakes up feeling it’s the 1960s again.
“It goes back and forth now,” she said Wednesday of the debate between the liberals and conservatives. “You have two movements against each other.”
Tyus recalled being in the stands during the medal ceremony 50 years ago. She noticed neither sprinter was wearing shoes on the way to the stand.
“What are they going to do?” Tyus wondered.
Smith and Carlos had removed their shoes as a statement about poverty. Not everyone noticed that. When they raised their fists, though …
The stadium “got eerily quiet,” Tyus said. “You could hear people talking, booing, cheering.”
The Olympic champion worried what would happen next. “I’m looking around and I realize I look like them,” she said.
On the stand, Carlos turned to Smith and said: “Remember we are trained to listen to the (starting) gun. If they’re going to shoot, they are going to shoot in that void. Listen for the gun.”
Smith said he heard the stadium fall silent. “The Star-Spangled Banner” seemed to last for an hour and a half.
“I could have finished five prayers,” he said.
Within 48 hours, Smith and Carlos had been suspended by the U.S. Olympic Committee and evicted from the Olympic Village. The reception wasn’t any better once they returned to San Jose. They were ostracized by many.
Now when they visit their alma mater, the men arrive as luminaries who are as important to the school’s brand as anyone.
Carlos takes pride in how the legacy has grown throughout the years.
“The gesture didn’t change me because I’ve been like this since I was knee-high to a grasshopper,” he said in June. “I’ve been like this all my life in terms of fighting for equality and for those who couldn’t fight for themselves.”