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Tommie C. Smith (born June 6, 1944)Tommie Smith and David Steele, Silent Gesture: the autobiography of Tommie Smith (2007). Temple University Press, p. 42. is an American former track and field athlete and wide receiver in the American Football League. At the 1968 Summer Olympics, Smith, aged 24, won the 200-meter sprint finals and gold medal in 19.83 seconds – the first time the 20-second barrier was broken officially. His Black Power salute with John Carlos atop the medal podium caused controversy, as it was seen as politicizing the Olympic Games. It remains a symbolic moment in the history of the Black Power movement.
On May 7, 1966, while he was at San Jose State, Smith set a world best of 19.5 seconds in the 200 m straight, which he ran on a cinder track. Tyson Gay aims for Tommie Smith's 44-year-old record . BBC Sport (April 30, 2010). Retrieved on May 3, 2010. That record for 200 m was finally beaten by Tyson Gay on May 16, 2010, just over 44 years later,Oddi, Vicky (May 16, 2010) Gay sprints to 19.41 world best on 200m straight. USATF Press release. Retrieved on June 13, 2015. though Smith still holds the record for the slightly longer 220-yard event. Since the IAAF has abandoned ratifying records for the event, Smith still retains the official record for the straightaway 200 m/220 yards in perpetuity. Edwards Announces Retirement . Track and Field News. Retrieved on June 13, 2015.
A few weeks later, on June 11, 1966, Smith set the record for 200 meters and 220 yards around a turn at 20.0, the first man to do that in 20 seconds. Six days later he won the NCAA Men's Outdoor Track and Field Championship. Smith also won the national collegiate 220-yard (201.17 m) title in 1967 before adding the AAU furlong (201.17m) crown as well. He traveled to Japan for the 1967 Summer Universiade and won the 200 m gold medal. He repeated as U.S. 200 m champion in 1968 and made the Olympic team.
As a member of the Olympic Project for Human Rights (OPHR) Smith originally advocated a boycott of the 1968 Olympics, the restoration of Muhammad Ali's world heavyweight boxing title, Avery Brundage to step down as president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and the hiring of more African-American assistant coaches. As the boycott failed to achieve support after the IOC withdrew invitations for South Africa and Rhodesia, he decided, together with Carlos, to not only wear their gloves but also go barefoot to protest poverty, wear beads to protest lynchings, and wear buttons that said OPHR.Zirin, Dave. Resistance: the best Olympic spirit
At the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico, Smith nursed an injured groin into the 200 m final. In the race, teammate Carlos powered out to the lead through the turn, while Smith got a slow start. Coming off the turn, Smith charged past Carlos and sped to victory. Knowing he had passed his training partner and closest opponent, his victory was so clear, he raised his arms to celebrate 10 m before the finish line. Still, he improved upon his own world record that would last for 11 years until Pietro Mennea would surpass it on the same track. Smith's time of 19.83 was among the first automatically timed world records for the event as recorded by the IAAF.
Carlos and Smith made headlines around the world by raising their black-gloved fists at the medal award ceremony. Both athletes wore black socks and no shoes on the podium to represent African-American poverty. In support, Peter Norman, the silver medalist who was a white athlete from Australia, participated in the protest by wearing an OPHR badge.
IOC president Avery Brundage deemed it to be a domestic political statement unfit for the apolitical, international forum the Olympic Games were intended to be. In response to their actions, he ordered Smith and Carlos suspended from the US 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 expulsion of the two athletes from the Games. On This Day: Tommie Smith and John Carlos Give Black Power Salute on Olympic Podium . Findingdulcinea.com. Retrieved on June 13, 2015.
A spokesman for the IOC called Smith and Carlos's actions "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 during the Berlin Olympics. He argued that the Nazi salute, being a German national salute at the time, was acceptable in a competition of nations, while the athletes' salute was not of a nation and therefore unacceptable."The Olympic Story", editor James E. Churchill, Jr., published 1983 by Grolier Enterprises Inc.
Smith and Carlos faced consequences for challenging white authority in the U.S. Ralph Boston, a black U.S. long jumper at the 1968 games, stated: "The rest of the world didn't seem to find it such a derogatory thing. They thought it was very positive. Only America thought it was bad.""The Silent Salute 1968 Olympics". (2016). Pitch International LLP. The men's gesture had lingering effects for all three athletes, the most serious of which were death threats against Smith, Carlos and their families. Following their suspension by the IOC, they faced economic hardship. Silver medalist Norman's career suffered greatly in his native Australia as "he returned home … a pariah, suffering unofficial sanction and ridicule as the Black Power salute's forgotten man. He never ran in the Olympics again."
Smith stated in later years that "We were concerned about the lack of black assistant coaches. About how Muhammad Ali got stripped of his title. About the lack of access to good housing and our kids not being able to attend the top colleges."
Smith, who had been drafted by the National Football League's Los Angeles Rams in the ninth round of the 1967 NFL draft, signed to play for the American Football League's Cincinnati Bengals and was part of the team's practice squad for most of three seasons as a wide receiver.Moore, Kenny (August 5, 1991) [6]. Sports Illustrated During the 1969 season, he played in two games, catching one pass for 41 yards. Tommie Smith, WR at. Nfl.com. Retrieved on June 13, 2015. Tommie Smith NFL & AFL Football Statistics. Pro-Football-Reference.com.
A year after his Olympic win, Smith finished his BA in Social Science at San Jose State University and went on to earn a master's in Social Change from Goddard College, whose program enabled Smith to integrate his teaching and writing practices into his coursework.
After his track and football careers, he became a member of the United States National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1978. In 1996, Smith was inducted into the California Black Sports Hall of Fame, and in 1999 he received that organization's Sportsman of the Millennium Award. In 2000 and 2001 the County of Los Angeles and the State of Texas presented Smith with commendation, recognition and proclamation awards.
He later became a track coach at Oberlin College in Ohio, where he also taught sociology and until 2005 was a faculty member teaching physical education at Santa Monica College in Santa Monica, California.
In August 2008, he gave 2008 Olympic triple gold winner Usain Bolt of Jamaica one of his shoes from the 1968 Olympics as a birthday gift.
In 2010, Smith put his gold medal and spikes up for auction. Bids started at $250,000, and the sale was scheduled to close November 4, 2010. In 2013, Goddard College honored Smith as an alumnus by awarding him the Presidential Award for Activism in 2013.
Smith's second book Victory. Stand! Raising My Fist for Justice was published in 2022 by Norton Young Readers. The graphic memoir was co-written with Derrick Barnes and illustrated by Dawud Anyabwile. The book received literary acclaim. It won the 2023 YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction and was recognized as a 2023 Corretta Scott King Award Author and Illustrator Honor Book as well as a finalist for the 2022 National Book Award for Young People's Literature.
We were not Antichrists. We were just human beings who saw a need to bring attention to the inequality in our country. I don't like the idea of people looking at it as negative. There was nothing but a raised fist in the air and a bowed head, acknowledging the American flag – not symbolizing a hatred for it.
For his lifelong commitment to athletics, education, and human rights, Smith received the Courage of Conscience Award from The Peace Abbey in Sherborn, Massachusetts. In 2004, a sports hall bearing his name was inaugurated in his presence at Saint-Ouen, France.
In 2005, a statue titled Victory Salute showing Smith and Carlos on the medal stand was constructed by political artist Rigo 23 and dedicated on the campus of San Jose State University. Norman's silver medal position was left vacant at his request, so visitors could pose for photos in solidarity with Smith and Carlos, as Norman had stood.
A mural of the photo taken with Smith on the podium at the 1968 Olympics with Carlos and Norman was painted on the brick wall of a residence in Newtown, New South Wales, Australia, titled "Three Proud People Mexico 68". The house's owner, Silvio Offria, allowed an artist known only as "Donald" to paint the mural, and said that Norman came to Newtown to see the mural and have his photo taken with it before he died in 2006. The mural faces the train tracks linking Sydney city to the Western and Southern Suburbs. In 2012, the Sydney City Council heritage site the mural to safeguard it, after it had faced possible demolition in 2010 to make way for a railway tunnel. Smith and Carlos were pallbearers at Norman's funeral in Melbourne in 2006.
On July 16, 2008, Smith and Carlos accepted the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage for the salute at the 2008 ESPY Awards. In 2018, Smith received the Dresden Peace Prize.
The Tommie Smith Youth Track Meet is held annually in his honor. It has been both an AAU and USATF-sponsored event, held at the University of California, Berkeley at Edwards Stadium.
San Jose State University has secured funding to rebuild the track and field complex. The centerpiece is Speed City Legacy Center, which pays tribute to SJSU alumni track stars and civil rights advocates.
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