October 25, 2005
A statue of Tommie Smith and John Carlos
has been erected at San Jose State University. Smith and Carlos were (in)famous for their raised fist protest on the medal podium at the 1968 Olympics.
via SportsFilter
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Good. They deserve it. I just wish the statue wasn't so damn ugly and, uh, predictable. According to the link, the Australian participated in the protest as well -- so why cut him out entirely? (If the statue is just going to be a representation of the moment itself, I mean?) But if there's any lesson in all this, it's the gesture that counts. Good on San Jose for addressing this long-standing wrong.
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According to the sculptor, silver medalist Peter Norman of Australia was left off to allow people to climb onto his place on the podium. Norman was present at the unveiling and approved of the idea.
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Very cool.
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Allright then.
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Thanks. An older article has a little more on the background of Smith and Carlos which is touched upon in the above links. It's interesting to me to read about their differing memories of who did what and why, given how unified they seemed to be in the moment.
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Great post. I never knew about that.