50 years ago today: Tommie Smith, John Carlos protest during 1968 Olympics
Tuesday marks a half-century since U.S. athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos staged a silent protest against racial discrimination on the medal podium at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City.
Smith and Carlos, who won gold and bronze, respectively, in the men's 200-meter final, each bowed their heads and raised a black-gloved fist as "The Star-Spangled Banner" played. Silver medalist Peter Norman, of Australia, wore an Olympic Project for Human Rights badge in support.
Fifty years ago to the day two American athletes, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, made one of the most famous political protests at the Olympic Games when they raised the Black Power salute. pic.twitter.com/ApmO2IIRnN
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) October 16, 2018
As a result of the protest, Smith and Carlos were both sent home from Mexico City and suspended from the U.S. team. They also received death threats and were placed under FBI surveillance.
"When we went to Mexico City, there was like a bright sun that shined on the universe, and by the time we came home, it was like a big storm came," Carlos said in a recent interview with Agence France-Presse.
Norman also faced heavy backlash after returning home.
"As soon as he got home he was hated," his nephew, Matthew Norman, told James Montague of CNN in 2012.
Norman died of a heart attack on Oct. 9, 2006. Smith and Carlos served as pallbearers at his funeral.