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At the 1968 Mexico Olympics, the raised fist of two African-American athletes “will impact the consciences of the entire world”
At the 1968 Mexico Olympics, the raised fist of two African-American athletes “will impact the consciences of the entire world” – (SENSITIVE AFFAIRS / FRANCE 2)
Tommie Smith and John Carlos marked History with an image: their raised fist gloved in black on the podium of the Olympic Games in Mexico, in 1968. An extract from “Sensitive Affairs” returns to a gesture with global resonance which denounced the racism suffered by the black American community, and for which athletes paid with their careers.
Mexico City, October 16, 1968: in front of 72,000 spectators, the men’s 200 meters final will begin. The Olympic Games event is the meeting place for the best sprinters in the world. Two African-Americans, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, represent the United States. The first is from Texas, which still practices racial segregation; the second comes from Harlem, one of the most violent ghettos in New York. For both, five months after the assassination of Martin Luther King, these Games represent a unique opportunity to advance the fight for equal civil rights. In the stands, the rumor is that something is going to happen, but no one knows more…
Booed by part of the stadium
Tommie Smith and John Carlos finished the race in first and third place respectively. A few hours later, they appear on the podium where they have a meeting with History… She will remember this legendary image: the two athletes, heads bowed, backs to their flag, brandishing a black-gloved fist. Their staging was carefully thought out: the raised fist and the black glove to signify the unity and power of African-Americans; black socks, without shoes, to remind us of the poverty of their community; a necklace (around the neck of John Carlos) to represent the rope used to hang black people in the United States.
“It was totally breathtaking. It was so glorious, so spectacular… It was fantastic, even better than anything I could have dreamed of.”
Ken Noel, founding member of the Olympic Project For Human Rights,in “Sensitive matters”
For the historian of sport and politics Patrick Clastres, the “considerable television force” of the event “will impact the consciences of the entire world” – not without arousing a certain “disapproval in the international sports movement, because we do not accept politics entering the Olympic arena.” In fact, this victory for black American activists will mark the beginning of a descent into hell for the two athletes.
Banned from American society
Following pressure from IOC boss Avery Brundage, close to white supremacists, Tommie Smith and John Carlos were expelled from Mexico. Forty-eight hours later, when they landed in California, they learned that the American Olympic committee had banned them from all competition for life. Once the media storm passes, they will lose even more than their athletic careers. In the years that followed, ostracized from American society, they were forced to take on odd jobs to survive, and their entire family life collapsed.
However, their sacrifice will not have been in vain: their gesture has become a rallying sign for other black athletes, like the American Bob Beamon in 1972 at the Munich Games. But they will have to wait until the 2000s to be rehabilitated in their country. In 2019, the Olympic committee presented them with an official apology… fifty-one years after their raised fist.
Excerpt from “The Rebels of the Olympic Games”, un documentary to be seen on February 4, 2024 in “Sensitive Affairs”, a France Télévisions, France Inter and INA co-production, adapted from a France Inter program.
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