This picture still gives me chills

[vi5]

I wasn't alive then but every time I see this picture it totally gets to me, especially every time the Olympics rolls around.

It's about politics. It's about sports. It's about patriotism. It's about dissent. It's about power without words on the world stage. It just sums up so much to me when I see it.

[Gman]

1. The right wing and other racists went totally balistic

when these guys did this. Not unlike any reaction they would have today, almost 40 years later.

[Lerkfish]

2. yup, I saw it live and couldn't have been prouder, personally, but

the tv reporters and politicos were outraged and indignant.

taught me a lot, early on.

[Coexist]

8. hmmm... like when Carter eulogized CSK?

or like when (insert your favorite example of someone bravely standing up for something)

The always manage to fake some outrage. Well behaved people rarely make history.

[Solomon]

26. I'll never forget it. Etched in my memory like yesterday. There has been

nothing else really like it. The guys said nothing before, and nothing after. It was the most elegant example of civil dissent I had ever witnessed. Short, succint, focused, and powerful.

Ranks in the top five memorable public events in my life. Tremendous.

It came from out of nowhere which is why people were so shocked.

[proud2BlibKansan]

13. Same here

I can still hear my dad freaking out.

[Gman]

30. Me too!

[LostinVA]

18. My Dad went ballistic -- I saw it live, too

I even believe he used a racial epithet.

[Lithos]

3. I remember it well

It caused a huge controversy. I remember too there was a lot of racial sub-text over it being about "Black Power" than any real complaints about politicizing the Olympics.

L-

[proud2BlibKansan]

14. And wasn't that Brando speech at the Oscars

at about this same time?

[Lithos]

17. No, don't think so.

That was 1973 if I remember, back when the Godfather was up. 1968's Oscars still had racial overtones, first it was delayed a few days because of the MLK assassination and I think the Sidney Poitier/Rod Steiger movie, _In the Heat of the Night_ won best picture. In case you don't recall, that's the film where the line "They Call Me Mr. Tibbs!" came from. Intense picture.

L-

[seemslikeadream]

4. I love that photo

COURAGE

[Theres-a]

5. Post of the day

Thanks Vi5:hi:

[adriennui]

6. munich does it for me also

that was the day things went bad. i knew this world was in trouble.

[havocmom]

12. Munich is the memory which makes me cring when Olympics start

Especially this year. Lots of people out there with grudges to settle, in no small part due to PNAC policies.

[SoCalDem]

28. The Olympics have never been "fun" for me after Munich

Prior to that, there was a collegiate/summer-camp feel to them. Politics were a part of the games from time to time, but for the most part, it was a few weeks every 4 years where young athletes from all over the world, gathered and had some fun. They competed hard, but at the end of the day, they partied together and actually got to know each other. I suspect that some became lifelong friends..

After Munich, security became the overriding issue, and segregation/separation became the norm. The Olympic village theme was abandoned. The athletes had trepidation, where there was once , wild enthusiasm.

I think that Munich ushered in the "new coverage" that we all hate. Prior to that event, reporters wandered at will, interviewing anyone they wanted, whenever they wanted. With the intensified security, everything had to be so pre-arranged and packaged/scripted, we have arrived at the awful coverage we have now.:(

[tyedyeto]

38. This pic was from Mexico 1968, not Munich n/t

[lectrobyte]

7. I was alive then, and it still gives me chills. Fight the power!

[Patiod]

9. I remember how upset white middle class people were at that

My parents went ballistic. But then again, to this day my father can't deal with Tiger Woods wearing "afrocentric" colors on the golfcourse on Sundays (don't ask me why this upsets him -- I love the guy but I've given up trying to plumb the "logic" behind some of his ideas)

[kwassa]

10. I used to see one of those guys around town

Tommy Smith ended up an athletic coach at Oberlin College.

He used to drive a Porsche round town, probably the only one in town. He dated a teacher in my high school.

[UCLA02]

11. He went to school in a little Navy town near where I'm from

Lemoore, CA. He was inducted into the high school hall of fame a few years back. Can't figure there's too many members, but certainly deserved by him (only took them 30 yrs to do it, though: it's a rather conservative town in the middle of the San Joaquin Valley).

[chat_noir]

15. Not the Triumph but the Struggle

Not the Triumph but the Struggle: The 1968 Olympics and the Making of the Black Athlete

by Amy Bass

Book Desription
Jesse Owens. Muhammad Ali. Michael Jordan. Tiger Woods. All are iconic black athletes, as are Tommie Smith and John Carlos, the two African American track and field medalists who raised black-gloved fists on the victory dais at the Mexico City Olympics and brought all of the roiling American racial politics of the late 1960s to a worldwide television audience. But few of those viewers fully realized what had led to this demonstration-events that included the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., uprisings in American cities, student protests around the world, the rise of the Black Power movement, and decolonization and apartheid in Africa.
In this far-reaching account, Amy Bass offers nothing less than a history of the black athlete. Beginning with the racial eugenics discussions of the early twentieth century and their continuing reverberations in popular perceptions of black physical abilities, Bass explores ongoing African American attempts to challenge these stereotypes. In particular, she examines the Olympic Project for Human Rights, an organization that worked to mobilize black athletes in the 1960s and whose work culminated with the Mexico City protest.

Although Tommie Smith and John Carlos were reviled by Olympic officials for their demonstration, Bass traces how their protest has come to be the defining image of the 1968 Games, with lingering effects in the sports world and on American popular culture generally. She then focuses on images of black athletes in the post-civil rights era, a period characterized by a shift from the social commentary of Muhammad Ali to the entrepreneurial approach of Michael Jordan.

Ultimately Bass not only excavates the fraught history of black athleticism but also offers an incisive look at media coverage of athletic events-and the way sport is intimately bound up in popular constructions of the nation.

Amy Bass is assistant professor of history at Plattsburgh State University and worked as a member of the NBC research team for the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, the Sydney Olympics in 2000, and the Salt Lake Olympic Winter Games in 2002.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0816639442/103-8973351-9525459?v=glance&n=283155

[seabeyond]

16. i just got done saying..... how simple all this is

and why arent people ready to adopt adult and say.... hey all. all tis shit is easy when being adult. why didnt we support some kind of black movement with corretta scott to so powerfully honor black and black movement and lack saying, i will say whatever i want at my funeral...... and if it is telling us to shut up.... it is buillshit,.... nsa, terrorist...... then that is what i will say.just with black and woman standing up to this bullshit gives us easy majority.

yes.... the time will come. we will have more of this

in a picture of strength, true human power.........commanding and demanding respect in such grace

[The Witch]

19. Can you explain the image? I'm ashamed to say I've never seen it before

thanks

[vi5]

22. It was in the Olympics, 1968 Mexico

2 athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos won medals at the Olympics and wore black socks and black gloves (each wore 1 glove from a pair on opposite hands from each other) and raised their fists in protest for black power and against racism. They were banned from the Olympics for life.

It just symbolizes to me people who can love their country, and represent it and work to succeed for it, but still protest its injustices and protest with simple, silent gestures.

[Canuckistanian]

24. It was taken to mean membership in the Black Panthers

As I recall.

[yellowdogmi]

31. I wish I could find

some of the panthers or better yet the weather underground today. Then we would have a revolution.

[missouri dem 2]

20. Here is a another almost forgotten bit ot history:

World: Americas

Marchers seek truth about Mexico massacre

The victims of the Tlatelolco massacre are not forgotten

Tens of thousands of people have marched through Mexico City to mark the 30th anniversary of one of the most controversial events in the country's history in which many protesters were shot dead during a demonstration. The BBC's Liz Throssell reports:
In October 1968, Mexico's leaders were gearing up to host the Olympic Games, when they knew the eyes of the world would be upon them.

They were also having to cope with increasingly radical protests by students, who were demanding more freedoms and democracy from the government.



One of the armed arrests in 1968
The situation came to a head on 2 October when protesters packed a square in the Tlatelolco neighbourhood of Mexico City.

What happened next remains a mystery. Troops and police began firing and the crowd fled in panic.

Officially 37 people died but testimonies gathered from survivors suggest more than 300 were killed.

Since then, government secrecy has surrounded the events, and the questions of how many died and who ordered the killings remain unanswered.

Thirty years on, many of those who witnessed the shootings returned to Tlatelolco to demand that secret files be opened. They were joined by tens of thousands of people all calling for an end to impunity.

Since 1968 Mexico, which has been governed by the Institutional Revolutionary Party for some 70 years, has become less authoritarian.

Opposition parties have a majority in Congress, the opposition controls the mayor's office in the capital, and for the first time there was an official day of mourning to remember those killed.

But many Mexicans believe that only when the truth is told about the massacre will the ghosts of the past be laid to rest.

[StaggerLee]

21. I remember watching an HBO special on the subject years ago

Brent Musberger was one of the outraged reporters.

Chicago columnist Brent Musburger called them "black-skinned storm troopers." http://www.newsreview.com/reno/Content?oid=oid%3A42676


I've disliked him ever since.

[malaise]

33. Fields of Fire

so glad I taped that. Mexico was hot that summer - lots of protests and strikes. It was the height of the Civil Rights Movement. I'd love to find more material on the Curt Flood struggle in baseball. That was another key moment in sport.

[StaggerLee]

39. Thank you!

:hi:

[FreedomAngel82]

23. It is a wonderful picture

[Stockholm]

25. They are angry

n/t

[Wilms]

27. K&R n/t

[Brewman_Jax]

29. K&R

:kick:

[malaise]

32. I was at those Olympics

Mexico 1968. My dad took three of us. I also have the race with Tommy and John Carlos and the medal ceremony on tape. Damn that was the politics of sport. HBO had a great documentary called Fields of Fire about sport in the entire period. Must see TV.

[cascadiance]

34. Someone should try and get this flag into the Olympics somehow...

http://www.designboom.com/contemporary/peace.html

This was a flag used to protest the impending invasion of Iraq in Italy earlier...

[YDogg]

35. Wonder what bush* was doing to change the world back then ...

... or that age?

[blogslut]

36. great article

about the statue at San Jose State University, commemorating this event:

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1020-28.htm

here's an excerpt

"...With palpable relief, I report that the statue does Smith and Carlos justice, and then some. It is a lyrical work of art, and a fitting tribute to two amazing athletes who rose to their moment in time. Credit should go to the artist, a sculptor who goes by the name Rigo23. Rigo23's most important decision was to leave Smith and Carlos's inventively radical and little discussed symbology intact. On the statue, as in 1968, Smith and Carlos wear wraps around their necks to protest lynching and they are not wearing shoes to protest poverty. Rigo23 made sure to remember that Carlos' Olympic jacket - in a shocking breach of etiquette - was zipped open, done so because as Carlos said to me, "I was representing shift workers, blue-collar people, and the underdogs. That's why my shirt was open. Those are the people whose contributions to society are so important but don't get recognized."

The most controversial aspect of the statue is that it leaves off Australian silver medalist Peter Norman altogether. This seems to do Norman a disservice considering that he was not a passive player in 1968 but wore a solidarity patch on his Olympic jacket so the world would know which side he was on.

But Rigo23 did this, over the initial objections of John Carlos, so people could climb up on the medal stand with Smith and Carlos and do everything from pose for pictures to lead speak-outs. Norman who traveled to the unveiling ceremony from Australia endorsed the design wholeheartedly understanding that its purpose is less to mummify the past than inspire the future. "I love that idea," said Norman. "Anybody can get up there and stand up for something they believe in. I guess that just about says it all..."

[OzarkDem]

37. I remember, too

It was a great moment, a real historic milestone. It took a huge amount of courage to do that.