Wednesday, October 16, 2013

45 Years Ago Today: Black Power Salute at the 1968 Olympics




Olympic Athletes  Tommie Smith (center) and bronze medalist John Carlos (right) raise black-gloved fists during the American national anthem at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. Australian sprinter Peter Norman, who won silver in the 200 meters and supported Carlos and Smith's protest, stands at left


John Dominis—Life Picture Collection

Gold medalist Tommie Smith (center) and bronze medalist John Carlos (right) raise black-gloved fists during the American national anthem at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. Australian sprinter Peter Norman, who won silver in the 200 meters and supported Carlos and Smith's protest, stands at left


Via LIFE.com

On the 45th anniversary of their Oct. 16, 1968, salute, and in tribute to Smith, Carlos and every other athlete — Muhammad Ali, Eric Liddell, Curt Flood, Sandy Koufax and on and on — who has acted on principle in a highly public way, LIFE.com presents John Dominis’s indelible portrait of that moment.

Smith and Carlos (both of whom are National Track and Field Hall of Famers) were vilified at home for their stand. They were suspended from the U.S. team. They received death threats. But neither man ever apologized for his raised fist or his bowed head — and neither ever had need to.

“We were just human beings who saw a need to bring attention to the inequality in our country,” Smith said years later, in a documentary on the 1968 Mexico City games produced for HBO. “I don’t like the idea of people looking at it as negative. There was nothing but a raised fist in the air and a bowed head, acknowledging the American flag — not symbolizing a hatred for it.”

Finally, it’s worth noting that the Australian silver medalist in the 200 meters in 1968, Peter Norman, stood solidly with Smith and Carlos, both literally and figuratively — displaying his solidarity with their action by wearing an Olympic Project for Human Rights badge during the medal ceremony. Four decades later, in 2006, both Smith and Carlos were pallbearers at Norman’s funeral.

“We knew that what we were going to do was far greater than any athletic feat,” Carlos was quoted as saying at the time. “[Norman] said, ‘I’ll stand with you.’”

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.

[MORE: Read Madison Gray's 2010 interview with John Carlos on TIME.com.]

Related:   "A raised arm, black power and Olympic trauma"

                50 stunning Olympic moments No13: Tommie Smith and John Carlos Salute

                The man who raised a black power salute at the 1968 Olympic Games


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