San Jose State community members gathered Thursday in front of the Olympic Black Power Statue, which depicts track and field athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos, to celebrate their legacy.
In the 1968 Olympic Games, Smith won the 200-meters race while Carlos finished third.
During the medal ceremony on Oct. 16, Smith and Carlos each raised a black-gloved fist while the U.S. national anthem was playing, in protest of racial segregation in the U.S. at the Estadio Olímpico Universitario in Mexico City.
The “Smith-Carlos Day,” which is an annual event but was not held in the last two years because of the coronavirus pandemic, featured many speakers who talked about the meanings of Smith and Carlos’ historic action, illuminating the importance of social justice movements and solidarity.
Those speakers included sociology professor Scott Myers-Lipton, Interim President Steve Perez and Diana Victa, Cesar E. Chavez Community Action Center department manager.
Myers-Lipton said by protesting against racial segregation in the U.S. and racism in sport during the medal ceremony, the two athletes taught the world an important lesson as they faced serious consequences after their actions.
“They received repeated death threats, they were denied jobs and they were vilified by the press as anti-Americans,” Myers-Lipton said.
He said the lesson Smith and Carlos presented to society is that people must be willing to sacrifice to create a “more just” society.
After Myers-Lipton and other organizers concluded their welcome speeches, Ken Noel, event keynote speaker and Olympic Project for Human Rights co-founder, recounted the important steps that his organization took during those years.
“The Olympic Project for Human Rights was an organization framing the possibility that Black Olympic athletes have great power and withholding their services because they are the one of the nation's important tools of propaganda against other adversary nations,” Noel said.
The organization was founded in 1967 at San Jose State by Noel and Harry Edwards with the participation of different athletes when they were students.
Noel said its goal was to stand out and oppose against racial discrimination in the U.S. and in athletics.
“In this day and age, students remain in their position and have the obligation to be agents for change,” he said. “Tomorrow belongs to you and it should take shape the way you want it.”
Noel also said when U.S. boxer Muhammad Ali was stripped of his heavyweight title for refusing to be drafted into the military during the Vietnam War, the organization started developing the idea of a protest by Black athletes to voice their opinion on racial discrimination and inequalities.
“This idea of negros boycotting the Olympics was becoming a really big deal all over the world,” he said. “We formed our goals. We defined our purpose and we wanted to gain some kind of national recognition for what we were trying to do.”
Noel said through the Olympics Project for Human Rights, they started working with Black athletes, educating them as to what the organization was about and encouraging them to boycott the 1968 games.
“We had no illusions about what might happen in Mexico City in 1968 because we knew that the track athletes really wanted to participate, that was their life dream,” he said.
In 2022, 54 years after the 1968 Olympics Games, the legacy of Smith, Carlos and the Olympics Project for Human Rights is a part of the SJSU community and the city of San Jose.
Jahmal Williams, SJSU director of advocacy for racial justice, said there are people in San Jose tackling issues surrounding homelessness, food insecurity, wage issues and racial injustice, continuing the paths traced by Smith and Carlos' social justice legacy.
“Those people who are standing with the community everyday are alums of this institution, are committed to the city, committed to this work and committed to leaving a legacy of change to make San Jose better,” Williams said.
Engineering junior Thenu Senthil said she was positively inspired by the event speakers.
“I left with a big sense of hope because San Jose is in a very unique location where, in between high-tech companies and billions of dollars, there are also children that don't even think college is an option for them,” Senthil said. “But this whole project helps bring so many people together and uplift communities.”
