![]() ![]() ![]() Their goal was nothing less than to expose how the United States used Black athletes to project a lie about race relations both at home and internationally. Harry Edwards, and its primary athletic spokespeople, Smith and the 400-meter sprinter Lee Evans, were deeply influenced by the Black freedom struggle. The media - and school curricula - fail to address the context that produced Smith and Carlos's famous gesture of resistance: It was the product of what was called "The Revolt of the Black Athlete." Amateur Black athletes formed OPHR, the Olympic Project for Human Rights, to organize a Black boycott of the 1968 Olympic Games. athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised gloved fists in protest against discrimination." For example, Pearson/Prentice Hall’s United States History places the photo opposite a short three-paragraph section, "Young Leaders Call for Black Power." The photo's caption says simply that ".U.S. ![]() history textbooks, the famous photo appears with almost no context. But while the image has stood the test of time, the struggle that led to that moment has been cast aside. It's been more than 50 years since Tommie Smith and John Carlos took the medal stand following the 200-meter dash at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City and created what must be considered the most enduring, riveting image in the history of either sports or protest. ![]()
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