1977 Olympics

This art is famous because it meant so much to so many people around the world, the fist being in the air is a symbol of black power. Each portion of this picture is a symbol that represents more than itself. As stated before the fist raise is a symbol of black power, not pictured are the athlete’s feet, in which both runners are wearing nothing but black socks to symbolize the African American poverty in America. Tommie Smith, the gold medal winner is wearing a black scarf to symbolize black pride. John Carlos, the bronze medal winner is wearing his jacket unzipped to represent to blue collar workers of America and a necklace to symbolize all those tortured in the name of prejudice and racism. All three runners have the patch for the OPHR (Olympic Project for Human Rights) on their jackets. The OHPR was a committee who was put together to support all human rights, especially those in America. The OHPR originally tried to schedule a boycott of the Olympics but it didn’t work. The gloves on the hands of the gentlemen almost didn’t work either as Carlos had forgotten his gloves. The idea for Smith to lend Carlos his other glove, causing him to raise his left hand instead of the right hand normally raised came from Pete Norman, the Australian silver medalist in the picture. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) was outraged at the sight of this because, not only were the fists raised, and the heads were bowed, but all this was done during the singing of the “Star Spangled Banner.” IOC president Avery Brundage deemed a domestic political statement unfit for the apolitical, international forum the Olympic Games were supposed to be. In an immediate response to their actions, he ordered Smith and Carlos suspended from the U.S. team and banned from the Olympic Village. When the US Olympic Committee refused, Brundage threatened to ban the entire US track team. This threat led to the two athletes being expelled from the Games. A spokesperson for the organization said it was "a deliberate and violent breach of the fundamental principles of the Olympic spirit." Brundage, who was president of the United States Olympic Committee in 1936, had made no objections against Nazi salutes during the Berlin Olympics. The Nazi salute, being a national salute at the time, was accepted in a competition of nations, while the athletes' salute was not of a nation and so was considered unacceptable. In 2008, the official IOC website states that "Over and above winning medals, the black American athletes made names for themselves by an act of racial protest. Later, on a trip to South Africa, John Carlos remembers staying in a village were he needed a place to sleep, he was taken in by a poor family, he recalled looking on the wall and seeing the poster of himself and Tommie putting their fists into the air. He said he asked the family what that meant, they asked him if he had seen it before, he told them no. They began to tell him how the two men with their fists in the air were kings and that their actions were great. He was astonished that his actions during the Olympic Games had such a worldwide impact. It was later speculated that the men had had their medals taken away from them; Carlos denied the accusation and told reporters it was at his home with his mother. To rumors that the men did this for popularity, after the podium stance Tommie Smith is quoted saying, “If I win, I am American, not a black man. If I did something wrong I am a Negro. We are black and we are proud of being black. Black America will understand what we did tonight. To this day a staue of the men stands at San Jose State University were the men attended and ran track. My own feelings on the picture is that these men went into the Olympic games, against the World’s t best, in spite of being treated like less than men at home because of their skin color, and won the gold medal. I think it’s a picture that after you learn about African American history you can be proud to see no matter what color you are, and that it proved to the world, not just the Olympics, that all things are possible, no one can stop you from being on top, No one.