Photo Credit: Angelo Cozzi
The american sprinters Tommie Smith,John Carlos and Peter Norman during the award ceremony of the 200 m race at the Mexican Olympic games. During the awards ceremony, Smith and Carlos protested against racial discrimination: they went barefoot on the podium and listened to their anthem bowing their heads and raising a fist with a black glove. Mexico City, Mexico, 1968 Mexico city, Mexico, 1968
On this day in 1968, track and field athletes, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, made a human rights protest at the 1968 Olympic stand. A salute was made by the athletes when raising a fist with a black glove while the National Anthem played. The athletes were suspended from the Olympic committee, and the protest is still known worldwide. Smith later wrote in his autobiography, Silent Gesture , the story about the protest. He also included that the salute was not only for blacks, but for human rights as a whole.
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