Tommie Smith Quotes
Our protest was a cry for freedom and for civil rights. We had to be seen because we couldn’t be heard.
In 1968 John Carlos and Tommie Smith had won an Olympic track medal, and while standing on the ceremonial medal stand they each raised a black-gloved fist in a Black power salute as the Star Spangled Banner was played and the American flag was raised. The scene was televised around the world. See {619664} for Carlos’ statement.
Tommie Smith, Olympic Athlete, Quoted in Smithsonian, August 2008
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
In 1968 Carlos and Tommie Smith had won an Olympic track medal, and while standing on the ceremonial medal stand they each raised a black-gloved fist in a Black power salute as the Star Spangled Banner was played and the American flag was raised. The scene was televised around the world. See {620084} for Smith’s statement about the protest.
Johnson rued that the Governor and other authorities of Alabama could not block or harass the Civil rights protesters.
He had written this text on a newspaper when he was jailed in Birmingham for violating a court order not to demonstrate. A common tactic of the Southern segregationists was to have local segregationist judges issue injunctions against civil rights demonstrations on the grounds that they would promote violence. These were generally unconstitutional, but King and others were jailed until the legal appeal could even be heard.
There was a planned boycott of the Olympics protesting three factors: Avery Brundage, the long serving head of the American Olympic Committee was a notorious racist and anti-Semite, Apartheid South Africa and Rhodesia had been invited to the Olympics, and there were almost no Black coaches of the American Olympic team while the majority of the athletes were Black. Dr. King met with the organizing athletes. The boycott did not get organized soon enough and did not materialize. However, Carlos and Tommy Smith made the famous raised fist gesture during the Olympic victory ceremony, and the third medal winner Australian Peter Norman wore a button supporting the protest at the ceremony. All 3 athletes faced serious retribution afterwards.
- Born: June 6, 1944
- Nationality: American
- Profession:
Tommie C. Smith is an American former track & field athlete and former wide receiver in the American Football League. At the 1968 Summer Olympics, Smith, aged 24, won the 200-meter sprint finals and gold medal in 19.83 seconds – the first time the 20-second barrier was broken officially. His Black Power salute with John Carlos atop the medal podium to protest racism and injustice against African-Americans in the United States caused controversy, as it was seen as politicizing the Olympic Games. It remains a symbolic moment in the history of the Black Power movement.
