The Olympic Project For Human Rights

Games of the XIX Olympiad
October 17, 1968 
Mexico, City

50th ANNIVERSARY

THE OLYMPIC PROJECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

It’s an iconic image: Two athletes raise their fists on the Olympic podium. The photograph, taken after the 200 meter race at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, turned African-American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos from track-and-field stars into the center of a roiling controversy over their raised-fist salute, a symbol of black power and the human rights movement at large...https://www.history.com/news/1968-mexico-city-olympics-black-power-protest-backlash.

This was an extremely turbulent time in our history; a mere 6 months after the assassination of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Four months following the assassination of Robert Kennedy. Protest against the Vietnam War were gaining momentum on college campuses across the country. Less than a month after these Olympic Games, Richard Nixon would be elected President of the United States.

10 days before the opening of the Summer Games, an unarmed group of protesters assembled in Mexico City’s Three Cultures Square to plan the next move of the growing Mexican students’ movement. The Mexican government sent in bulldozers to disperse the thousands gathered, and troops fired into the crowd, killing between four (the government’s official count) and 3,000 students.

Mexican Police Beating a Protester During a Student March, Days Before Hundreds of Students Were Shot and Killed by Mexican Soldiers

Carlos and Smith were deeply affected by these events and the plight of marginalized people around the world. “It was a cry for freedom and for human rights,” Smith told Smithsonian magazine in 2008. “We had to be seen because we couldn’t be heard.”

Backlash from the protest was harsh and swift. The IOC expelled Smith and Carlos from the Olympic Games, giving them 48 hours to leave the Olympic Village.The IOC then threatened to expel the entire US Olympic Team.

The backlash didn't end there. Peter Norman the Olympic Silver Medalist from Australia supported his fellow Olympians’ protest, in part because of the intolerance he had witnessed in Australia. Norman, a teacher and guided by his Salvation Army faith, took part in the Black Power salute because of this opposition to racism and the White Australia Policy. His decision to stand in solidarity with his fellow athletes would have dire consequences upon his return to Australia. In spite of posting the fastest times in Australia, by far, he was snubbed by the Australian Olympic Team in 1972. Rather than allow Peter Norman to represent their country, Australia decided not to send a sprinter at all.

Join us in acknowledging and celebrating the bravery and sacrifice of these elite athletes whose social consciousness inspired one of the most iconic moments in sport. 

The San Jose State University Institute for The Study of Sport, Society and Change, VIP Reception and Grand Opening of "The Power Of Protest" featuring artifacts from the Dr. Harry Edwards Collection, Speed City Era and more. Thursday September 6th from 6:00pm to 7:30pm at the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library on the campus of San Jose State University

September 6th