Tommie Smith and John Carlos’s Black Power salute stunned the world at 1968 Games

John Carlos (left) and Tommie Smith in front of a statue that honours their protest at the Games. Photo: @SJSU/X

By Keanan Hemmonsbey

14 Jul 2024

While records tumbled, two athletes made a defiant gesture that reverberated around the world.

At the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico, American Tommie Smith set a world record in the 200m sprint, running a time of 19.83, becoming the first athlete to run under 20 seconds legally.

Smith’s achievement signified a previously thought impossible breakthrough in running. Yet, his historic run at the University Olympic Stadium in Mexico City is but a footnote to what was to follow.

Politics and sport

The US suffered one of its most turbulent political years in 1968. The Vietnam War escalated with the Tet Offensive, which led to thousands of casualties on both sides of the war, starting in January and ending in September.

US Democratic presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy was assassinated in public view in June after winning the California primary. And the civil rights movement reached its zenith after one of its most prominent leaders, Martin Luther King Jr, was assassinated in April. His death led to riots and protests breaking out across the US as racial tension rose, and more than 40 people were killed.

This all occurred against the backdrop of the geopolitical tension of the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union.

The growing racial tension in the US had resulted in the formation of the Olympic Project for Human Rights (OPHR) by noted sociologist, civil rights activist and Black Panther Party member Harry Edwards the year before, in 1967. The OPHR, along with King Jr, proposed that black athletes boycott the Olympics in protest against the treatment of black athletes.

The 1968 US Olympic track and field squad was one of the best yet assembled, comprising Bob Beamon (long jump), Jim Hines (100m), Lee Evans (400m) and Smith. Each would go on to set a world record at the Games, although, for a while, they came close to not participating.

The OPHR laid out six conditions to avoid a boycott: barring South Africa and Rhodesia from the Games because of their apartheid and segregation policies; restoring Muhammad Ali’s world heavyweight boxing title; removing Avery Brundage as president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) because he was perceived as racist and antiSemitic; hiring more black assistant coaches for the US team; including black people in the US Olympic Committee; and boycotting the New York Athletic Club.

Tommie Smith (right) wins the men’s 200m final at the Olympic Games in Mexico in 1968. (Photo: Douglas Miller / Keystone / Hulton Archive / Getty Images)

Breaking a record

Most of the OPHR’s demands were not met as the Games approached, and black athletes decided to participate because they could not all come to an agreement to boycott it.

However, Smith and John Carlos, his compatriot and number-one competitor in the 200m for the gold medal in Mexico, still saw an opportunity to have their voices heard in their fight for equality.

On the morning of 16 October, Smith ran one of the great 200m races. Carlos had led most of the race in lane four, but he seemed to tire in the home straight just as Smith, in lane three, began to pick up speed. Smith bolted past Carlos with about 40m to go to the finishing line and raised both arms aloft as he crossed the 200m mark.

Carlos’s tiring legs also resulted in Australian Peter Norman, who was in fifth place coming into the home straight, streaking ahead and lunging to grab the silver medal.

The altitude in Mexico City helped with the rapid times as all three men beat the previous Olympic record, with Norman crossing the finishing line in 20.06 seconds and Carlos in 20.10.

After the race the three athletes proceeded to the podium to be awarded their medals, and this is where history was created in the middle of the stadium.

John Carlos (left) and Tommie Smith in front of a statue that honours their protest at the Games. (Photo: @SJSU / X)

Black Power salute

When the American national anthem – the Star-Spangled Banner – began, Smith and Carlos bowed their heads and raised their fists, Smith his right and Carlos his left, revealing black gloves on their hands.

The gesture became known as the Black Power salute – a statement against the oppression of black people in the US.

In addition, all three medal winners, including Norman, wore OPHR buttons on their jackets.

“The right glove signified the power within black America,” Smith said afterwards. “The left glove signified black unity. The scarf that was worn around my neck signified blackness.

“John Carlos and [I] wore black socks without shoes to also signify our poverty.”

Carlos wore his Olympic track jacket unzipped – a violation of Olympic etiquette – to show solidarity with working-class Americans. He was also seen wearing a bead necklace to honour the lynchings of black Americans.

The aftermath

Boos could be heard across the stadium as the three medallists left the podium, but the backlash was yet to come. Their demonstration was not acknowledged as the heroic gesture it is seen as today.

The IOC suspended the pair from the US team two days later and they were banned from the Olympic Village. They were given 48 hours to leave Mexico.

Read more Greatest Olympic Moments:

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Tatjana and Bianca flew SA’s flag in Covid-hit Tokyo 2020

Astonishing feet — barefoot Abebe Bikila becomes Ethiopia’s first gold medallist at the Games

The fast and the effortless — Usain Bolt made winning gold medals look easy

Smith and Carlos were ostracised in the US and faced death threats. Carlos was 23 at the time and Smith was 24.

Although both were in their running prime by the time the next Games in Munich came round four years later, neither was allowed to participate. Norman faced a similar backlash and Australia did not allow him to run at the Games in 1972 either.

“The black athlete… has grown to know that the body could be a springboard to success,” Smith said in 1972. “He works doubly hard at that as he would at anything else. Because in athletics, especially track and field, nobody can say you are no good. The only person who can say that is that clock.”

Asked if he regretted the salute, Smith said: “The only regret was that it had to be done.” DM

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Sport

Politics and sport

Breaking a record

Black Power salute

The aftermath