The New York Times

Black Power Salute, or

Violent Salute?
By CAMILO RUDOLPH

These mass protest were not

even the highlight of the 68
Olympics. African American
sprinters, Tommie Smith and
John Carlos, gold and bronze
medalists, once on the podium,
raised their hands, bowed their
head and stood there. This was
known as the black power
salute.

Through this, the two athletes

received not only verbal abuse,
but also death threats to them
and their entire family.

There was some good that

came out of this whole ordeal for
MAY 26, 2016
both athletes. Tommie Smith
was awarded with the California
MEXICO CITY For the first
black sportsman of the year
time ever, the Olympic
award. And John Carlos went
Organization decided to host
the 1968 Olympic summer games To many this was seen as an act back to doing one of the things
he loved, he was allowed to
in a non-first-world country, of bravery. However, to the
Mexico.
president of the International
coach the 1984 summer
Olympic Committee, (IOU),
Olympics.
While it was a giant step
Avery Brundage saw this as a
towards more diversity in the
Later in their lives the two men
political statement and
locations, the people of mexico
demanded that the two sprinters settled down and found a way
were furious to find out that the
be expelled from the US national that they felt could contribute to
Mexican government had spent team. When the US said that
the people. Tommie Smith is
an estimated $176 million on the they wouldnt comply, he then
now a public speaker, and John
games.
Carlos is now a high school
threatened the entire country
track coach at Palm Spring High
and stated that if they were not
The reaction of the people was
kicked off, then the US could not School.
catastrophic. The citizens of
participate in the Olympics at all.
Mexico has a mass gathering at
the City Plaza and protested the A spokesperson for the IOC
way their government was
stated it was a deliberate and
spending their money.
violent breach of the
During the protests, the police of
Mexico shot over 1000
protesters and killed over 200
people. This lead to even more
protests, and the people of
Mexico getting even more
infuriated.

fundamental principals of the

Olympic spirit.
Since the spokesperson for the
IOC has so many people
listening to what he said, he had
a large influence over how
people perceived the salute that
the athletes performed.