Olympian in '68 Black Power Salute- Tommie Smith Selling '68 Gold Medal

[Panaconda]

Tommie Smith, center, and John Carlos, right, were expelled from the 1968 Olympics after their Black Power salute.

Olympian in '68 Black Power salute to sell medal

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Tommie Smith is selling the gold medal he won at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, where his Black Power salute on the podium shocked the sports world.

The former San Jose State runner has put his gold medal for the 200 meters and spikes up for auction at New York-based M.I.T. Memorabilia. The bid starts at $250,000, and the sale is scheduled to close Nov. 4.

...

M.I.T.'s Gary Zimet says Smith is selling the medal for the money but also because he wants to share it with the public.

Smith won the 200 in world-record time, then was expelled from the Games along with bronze medalist John Carlos when they bowed their heads during the Star-Spangled Banner and raised their black-gloved fists in protest. The human rights protest eventually earned Smith and Carlos international acclaim.


http://www.ajc.com/sports/olympian-in-68-black-681796.html

10 minute video on the subject. Don't miss it.

Black Power Salute 4/6:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fE0gn70tw50&feature=related

[TheDebbieDee]

1. I never knew these men got to keep their medals...........

I thought they were stripped of their medals AND banned from the Olympics for life.

Just shows to go you, you learn something new everyday.

[Ishoutandscream2]

2. Same here

I am surprised by this.

[Panaconda]

3. Check out that video

Tells the story much more in-depth.

Can't even imagine an athlete having that courage today. The simple courage to speak for the powerlessness of others.

[tularetom]

4. A local kid

Grew up about 25 miles from where I lived.

Played football against his brother in HS.

Funny thing he was never known for being radical until the black athletes threatened to strike the 68 Olympics. He was from a large farm worker family who migrated to CA from the South and a ROTC cadet at San Jose.

The protest on the victory stand in Mexico took a lot of guts. It more or less ended his athletic career and pissed off a lot of people in the US.

But there are a lot of people around the world who still regard him as a hero for his stand.

God bless him.

[Canuckistanian]

5. Who buys Olympic Gold Medals?

That would be a pretty sad collection. Somebody who has money and no achievements of their own buying trophies from the real victors - probably because the real winners need the money.

Very sad.

[customerserviceguy]

9. It is a piece of history

I can see someone buying it for that reason alone. I can say the same thing about anyone buying an award given to a deceased person, where the medal or statue was being sold by the family to raise a few bucks.

[eShirl]

11. a museum?

[Starry Messenger]

6. I never knew about this event.

How embarrassing, I'm only an hour from San Jose. I recognize the name of the artist who put up the statue commemorating this at SJSU. What amazing guys, and so brave.

Some people (particularly IOC president Avery Brundage) felt that a political statement had no place in the international forum of the Olympic Games. In an immediate response to their actions, Smith and Carlos were suspended from the U.S. team by Brundage and voluntarily moved from the Olympic Village. Brundage, who was president of the United States Olympic Committee in 1936, had made no objections against Nazi salutes during the Berlin Olympics.<6> People who opposed the protest said the actions disgraced all Americans. Supporters, on the other hand, praised the men for their bravery. The men's gesture had lingering effects for all three athletes, the most serious of which were death threats against Smith, Carlos and their families.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommie_Smith

Figures. Fascism A-OK, oppressed people celebrating...must suppress! They don't mention that at the Asian Art Museum in SF. The Avery Brundage collection is one of the biggest attractions, it's 50% of the permanent exhibit. I was trying to remember why that name sounded familiar, I have a book on the tea bowls he owned. http://www.asianart.org/collection.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avery_Brundage

936 Olympics; Removal of Jews from the track team, and opposition to women in sports

As USOC president, Brundage rejected any proposals to boycott the 1936 Summer Olympics to be held in the capital of Nazi Germany, despite the exclusion of German Jews by the policies of Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich. In fact, Brundage became a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) after the group expelled American Ernest Lee Jahncke, who had urged athletes to boycott the Berlin games.

On the morning of the 400-meter relay race, at the last moment, the only two Jews on the 1936 US track team, Marty Glickman and Sam Stoller, were replaced by Jesse Owens and Ralph Metcalfe. Brundage, a Nazi sympathizer had pressured to have the only two Jews on the track team removed at the last moment so as not to embarrass Hitler and the Nazis with a Jewish victory.<7><8><9><10><11><12><12> Brundage later praised the Nazi regime at a Madison Square rally.<8><9><10><13><14> Brundage was expelled from the America First Committee in 1941 because of his pro-German leanings. After the 1936 Olympics, Brundage's construction company was awarded a building contract to build the German Embassy in Washington, D.C. Brundage was notified in a letter from Nazi authorities acknowledging Brundage's pro-Nazi sympathies.<8> As late as 1971, after many revelations over Nazi Germany's use of the 1936 Olympics for their own propaganda, Brundage still claimed "The Berlin Games were the finest in modern history...I will accept no dispute over that fact".<9>

Fuck, talk about politicizing the Olympics. I'm sorry Tommie must sell his medals for money. They should go in the Smithsonian.

[TBF]

7. It should go to a museum along with the story -

hopefully the buyer will eventually do that.

[Starry Messenger]

8. I hope so too, TBF.

I hate to think of it just going into a private collection of sports memorabilia.

[pnorman]

10. Avery Brundage!

"Brundage, who was president of the United States Olympic Committee in 1936, had made no objections against Nazi salutes during the Berlin Olympics.

I knew about that Nazi-loving asshole, but was unaware of that Nazi-salute affair. Thanks for putting the Mexican Olympics in the correct perspective!

[PVnRT]

12. Don't forget the Tlatelolco Massacre 10 days before the '68 games started

Tlatelolco Massacre (Wikipedia)

The Tlatelolco massacre, also known as The Night of Tlatelolco (from a book title by the Mexican writer Elena Poniatowska), was a government massacre of student and civilian protesters and bystanders that took place during the afternoon and night of October 2, 1968, in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas in the Tlatelolco section of Mexico City. The violence occurred ten days before the 1968 Summer Olympics celebrations in Mexico City.

While at the time, government propaganda and the mainstream media in Mexico claimed that government forces had been provoked by protesters shooting at them, government documents that have been made public since 2000 suggest that the snipers had in fact been employed by the government. Although estimates of the death toll range from thirty to a thousand, with eyewitnesses reporting hundreds of dead, Kate Doyle was only able to find evidence for the death of forty four people. According to the reports of the head of the Federal Directorate of Security 1345 people were arrested on October 2.

Of course, like the Haymarket Riot, the police and army claim that "provocateurs" started it, so of course they had to just start slaughtering anyone nearby.

[Blue_Tires]

13. i hope there is some real truth and closure about that incident someday

not ONE person spent a day in jail because of it??

[Panaconda]

14. Thanks for that history lesson

Was not aware of that.

[ensho]

15. I'll never forget watching that happen - I broke down in tears and

felt so proud of him, them.