Tommie Smith and John Carlos will be inducted into the US Olympic and Paralympic Hall of Fame

30th September 2019   ·   0 Comments

(BlackmansStreet.Today) — When Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their arms with black gloves on their hands during the medal ceremony at the 1968 Summer Olympics, the crowd booed loudly to show its disapproval.

Smith and Carlos finishing first and third in the 200-meter dash. The two raised their arms during the Star Spangle Banner to protest racism in the U.S. and the crowd booed loudly to show they didn’t like what they were doing.

Smith won the Gold Medal, setting a world record of 19.83 seconds, and Carlos won the Bronze Medal. Peter Norman of Australia won the Silver Medal.

The crowd continued to boo as the two men walked off the winners’ podium wearing black socks but no shoes. U.S. Olympic officials ordered Smith and Carlos to leave the Olympic village.

Brent Musburger, a sportswriter, called Smith and Carlos “black-skinned storm troopers” for their clenched fist power salute. His comments appeared in Chicago American, which now has folded, newspaper jargon for gone out of business.

Musburger, now a play by play man for the Oakland Raiders, never explained what the two sprinters were protesting. The article’s headline read “Bizarre Protest by Smith, Carlos Tarnishes Medals.

“It’s safe to say the Chicago American’s newsroom was all-white and all male. The newspaper is no longer in business.

Time magazine said the protest by Smith and Carlos made the Olympic games ugly.

More than 50 years after the Smith and Carlos were ordered out of Olympic Village, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee announced it will induct Smith and Carlos and seven others into the Olympic hall of fame. The two men will be inducted during a ceremony November 1 in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Carlos doesn’t think about Musburger who never has apologized for his comments.

Carlos told U.S.A. Today Sports, “Well you know, Brent Musburger doesn’t even exist in my mind. So I don’t even know. He didn’t mean anything to me 51 years ago. He doesn’t mean anything to me today. Because he’s been proven to be wrong.”

After the Olympics, the Smith and Carlos were ostracized, finding it difficult to make a living.

Before the Olympic games me and my friends considered them heroes because of their abilities to sprint faster than most people on Earth.

Smith was competing in a track meet at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington, where I grew up.

At least five of us went to the meet. When we saw Smith stretching on the infield, we surrounded him. None of said anything, we just gazed at him like we believed we were in the presence of God.

Peter Norman did not fare as well after the games. The Australian government ostracized Norman and never forgave him supporting Smith and Carlos.

Norman died in 2006. Smith and Carlos were pall bearers at his funeral.

This article originally published in the September 30, 2019 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.