Olympic Games: History Behind Black Power Salute

Sports events have time and again been used by athletes to display their concern for a cause or as a mark of protest. They have utilized the stage to express their political statement through various gestures.

The grand platform of the Olympic Games has also witnessed such moments of show of resistance. One of the most iconic marks of protest was the Black Power Salute at the 1968 Mexico Olympics.

Two African-American athletes, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, each raised a black-gloved fist during the playing of the US national anthem to demonstrate against racial discrimination. 

The Making of Black Power Salute

The unusual sight occurred on the morning of October 16, 1968, after US athlete Tommie Smith won the 200-meter race with a world-record time of 19.83 seconds. Australia’s Peter Norman finished second with a time of 20.06 seconds, and the US’s John Carlos finished in third place with a time of 20.10 seconds.

During the medal ceremony, the three went to the podium. Tommie Smith and John Carlos went shoeless, but wearing black socks to represent black poverty. Smith wore a black scarf around his neck to replicate black pride. Carlos had his tracksuit top unzipped to show solidarity with all blue-collar workers in the US and wore a necklace of beads which he described “were for those individuals that were lynched, or killed and that no-one said a prayer for, that were hung and tarred.”

 

All three athletes wore Olympic Project for Human Rights (OPHR) badges after Norman, a critic of Australia’s former White Australia Policy, expressed empathy with their ideals. The project was established for the welfare of Black people globally and advocated for Black athletes. Specifically, they strived for the appointment of Black coaches. Some of the Black members of the US team had threatened to boycott the Olympic Games.

Smith and Carlos were also deeply perturbed by the events that occurred 10 days before the Olympic Games began. On October 2, 1968, Mexican military troops and police officers opened fire into a crowd of unarmed student protesters, killing as many as 300 youths.

The prevailing situation around human rights compelled the duo to make a political statement on the Olympic stage in what is now famously known as the black power salute.

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In his autobiography, Silent Gesture published nearly 30 years later, Smith cleared that his gesture was not a “Black Power” salute per se, but rather a “human rights” salute.

The Black Power Salute, however, spelled doom to their sports career. Following the incident, Smith and Carlos were suspended from the US team and banned from the Olympic Village. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) called their actions “a deliberate and violent breach of the fundamental principles of the Olympic spirit.”

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Smith and Carlos could never recover from the repercussions of their actions, in terms of professional sports careers. However, their gesture remains as one of the most politically surcharged statements at the Olympics.