Tommie Smith was the Olympics gold medalist in the 1968 Olympic games which was held in Mexico City that year. Smith smashed the world record with a time of 19.8 seconds. His teammate John Carlos won the bronze that same year and competition. Both Carlos and Smith were part of an organization called the Olympic Project for Human Right or otherwise known as the OPHR. The founder of the organizations was a sociologist and college professor, Harry Edwards. Tommie Smith was one of the original members that helped to get the group up and running. Edwards states that “the group's mission as affecting the liberation of blacks in the united states and elsewhere by using the international platform provided by an in sports”.
The group set up many different attempts to fight for human rights such as boycotting the New York Athletic Club's annual track meet in 1968 but none were as successful as the 1968 Olympic games Tommie Smith and John Carlos too their stand for human right. While standing upon the podium, both athletes took their shoes off, rolled up their pant sleeves to reveal long black socks. The athletes then continued to put on a black scarf and one black glove each. …show more content…
Tommie was more reserved when he was confronted about his stance. Many people tried to get information out of Smith but he refused to talk at that particular time if his life. Eventually Tommie Smith did open up and talk about the “Silent Gesture”, the book Smith wrote telling his viewpoint with his stance at the Olympics. In an Interview through Temple University, Tommie Smith did an interview with David Steele. The interview was titled the Silent Gesture after his book. Within the interview Tommie talks about why he waited to long to tell his story, talks about why he never regretted his actions, talks about how it impacted his family, and how he wanted his legacy to be
The group set up many different attempts to fight for human rights such as boycotting the New York Athletic Club's annual track meet in 1968 but none were as successful as the 1968 Olympic games Tommie Smith and John Carlos too their stand for human right. While standing upon the podium, both athletes took their shoes off, rolled up their pant sleeves to reveal long black socks. The athletes then continued to put on a black scarf and one black glove each. …show more content…
Tommie was more reserved when he was confronted about his stance. Many people tried to get information out of Smith but he refused to talk at that particular time if his life. Eventually Tommie Smith did open up and talk about the “Silent Gesture”, the book Smith wrote telling his viewpoint with his stance at the Olympics. In an Interview through Temple University, Tommie Smith did an interview with David Steele. The interview was titled the Silent Gesture after his book. Within the interview Tommie talks about why he waited to long to tell his story, talks about why he never regretted his actions, talks about how it impacted his family, and how he wanted his legacy to be