In
these days of #BlackLivesMatter,
#HandsUpDontShoot, #ICantBreathe,
#TakeDownTheFlag and
#WhoIsBurningBlackChurches, new movements are
brewing and people are searching for ways to
do their part to fight racial injustice. When
people ask how they can help in the midst of
everything that is being thrown at us, I can’t
help but think of Peter Norman. Who, you ask?
He’s the man on the left, the Australian
Silver medalist in that iconic photo with
Tommie Smith and John Carlos - the Gold and
Bronze medalists - at the 1968 Summer Olympics
in Mexico City.
On October 16,
1968, Smith and Carlos took the victory stand
with their heads bowed and eyes closed, their
hands raised with black gloves, and fists
clenched. Their “black power salute” during
the playing of the Star-Spangled Banner was a
silent protest by these athletes against
racial injustice, and their statement, viewed
then as a controversial combination of Olympic
sports and politics, sent shock waves
throughout the games.
The
unsung hero of the Black Power fist salute,
Norman not only suggested that Smith and
Carlos share Smith’s pair of black gloves, he
also wore a badge in solidarity with the
Olympic Project for Human Rights (OPHR), an
organization that called for a boycott of the
Olympics by black athletes, banning apartheid
South Africa and Rhodesia from the Olympics,
the hiring of black coaches and the
restoration of Muhammad Ali’s boxing title.
Norman spoke out against racism in America and
in his native Australia, where Aboriginal
people were first counted in the census the
year before, had been given the right to vote
only three years earlier, and were forcibly
removed from their families under a White
Australia policy.
“I couldn’t see why a black man wasn’t allowed to drink out
of the same water fountain or sit in the same
bus or go to the same schools as a white guy,”
said Norman, who had a strong Salvation Army
upbringing. “That was just social injustice
that I couldn’t do anything about from where I
was, but I certainly abhorred it.”
The actions of Smith - the gold
medalist in the 200-meter race - and Carlos -
the bronze winner - must be viewed within the
context of the times in which the men lived.
And the times were turbulent and divisive.
After all, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and
Senator Robert F. Kennedy had been
assassinated only months before the games at
Mexico City. The United States was engulfed in
anti-Vietnam War protests and civil rights
demonstrations. Antiwar protestors had been
beaten by police during the Democratic
National Convention in Chicago. There were
calls for black power in African-American
communities throughout the nation, and the
Black Panther Party had expanded to cities
across America. And the U.S. Supreme Court had
struck down the Jim Crow antimiscegenation
laws only a year earlier.
On the victory stand, the symbolism of
the political statement made by Smith and
Carlos had been well planned. The two athletes
wore black socks with no shoes to represent
“black poverty in a racist America,” while
Smith wore a black scarf around his neck
standing for black pride. Carlos - who wore
beads for those who were lynched and died in
the Middle Passage - raised his left fist to
represent black unity. And Smith raised his
right fist for black power in the U.S.
Together, the men represented unity and power.
“If I win I am an
American, not a black American. But if I did
something bad then they would say ‘a Negro’.
We are black and we are proud of being
black,” Smith said at a press conference
after the event. “Black America will
understand what we did tonight.”
As a result of their black power
salute, Smith and Carlos were suspended by the
U.S. Olympic Committee for a “willful
disregard of Olympic principles.” In an
official statement, the U.S. Committee
expressed “its profound regrets” to the
International Olympic committee, the Mexican
Organizing Committee and to the people of
Mexico, referring to the black power salute as
“discourtesy” and “immature behavior.”
“The untypical
exhibitionism of these athletes also
violates the basic standards of good manners
and sportsmanship, which are so highly
valued in the United States, and therefore
the two men involved are suspended forthwith
from the team and ordered to remove
themselves from the Olympic Village,” the
statement continued.
The U.S. Olympic
Committee warned all other athletes,
regardless of color, that any further protests
would carry “severe” penalties. Smith and
Carlos were suspended from the team and given
48 hours to leave Mexico.
Ultimately, Norman was punished by the Australian Olympic
Committee and made an outcast by the
Australian media. Further, he was not selected
for the 1972 Munich games, and was snubbed at
the 2000 Sydney games, to which he was not
invited to the opening or closing ceremonies.
In 2006, after Norman died of a heart attack,
Smith and Carlos traveled to Melbourne to
serve as pall bearers at Norman’s funeral.
In
2012, the Australian parliament issued Norman
an official posthumous apology. “A protest like this, on a global
stage, had never been done before. At the
time, it was electrifying,” said Australian
Member of Parliament Andrew Leigh issuing an
apology to Norman’s family in a speech
before the legislature. “In that moment
Norman advanced international awareness for
racial equality. He was proud to stand with
Smith and Carlos and the three remained
lifelong friends.”
Long
story short, we have to fight the battles
against injustice wherever we find ourselves,
because we have no other choice and no one
else will.
