The 1968 Mexico City Summer Olympics: the first Olympics to be completely broadcast in color. Tens of millions of Americans watching, many for the first time. On the 200-meter men’s dash, two Americans win medals, with John Carlos setting a world record. Getting on the podium for the national anthem, the two Americans wore black boxing gloves, a black shirt over their Team USA jerseys, and no shoes. They lowered their heads and raised their gloves during the playing of the Star Spangled Banner. For the entire song, they stood still, not daring to move even in response to how the stadium responded. This single event is characterized as the ” one of the most overt political statements in the 100-year-plus history of the modern Olympic Games.” (UCLA) Members of the Olympic Project for Human Rights, they did this in response to the 1968 Mexico City Massacre just 10 days before the Olympics started. Everything they wore had significance; they were protesting inequality for black people everywhere: that year the Olympics had banned South Africa at the last minute in response to apartheid. These men were subsequently banned from the Olympics and were ostracized back home, but they felt it was their civic responsibility to use the platform they had to protest what was happening globally. It was a brave thing to do, they had one song, one podium, two men, and a few articles of clothing to make their mark on Olympic history. Not to mention that there was no certainty they would have won, or even have gotten first place. There was only one glove on each man’s hand because they did not expect to put two men on the podium. The protest would have been looked in a completely different light if first place was from a different country and these men did this protest to a foreign anthem.

Works Cited

Tommie Smith and John Carlos | Arthur Ashe Legacy (ucla.edu)

“First Summer Olympic Games Televised in Colour.” Guinness World Records. Retrieved September 22, 2022

Lewis, Richard (October 8, 2006). “Caught in Time: Black Power salute, Mexico, 1968”. The Sunday Times. London. Retrieved September 22, 2022