Tommie Smith is still passionate about human rights/Picture by Lee Townsend
At 6ft 3ins Tommie Smith is hard to ignore. Looking decades younger than his 68 years, he has an easy smile and looks like a retired businessman. In reality, Smith is an Olympic legend. In 1968, at the summer Olympics in Mexico City, Smith and John Carlos raised their black leather-gloved fists in the air in support of human rights for African-Americans. Despite wearing his gold medal for breaking the World and Olympic records in the 200 metres, Smith was ostracised for what was seen as an un-American and militant gesture.
Forty-four years later, he has forged a career as a human rights activist and academic, with a Masters Degree in Sociology and an Honorary Doctorate Degree of Humane Letters from San Jose State University, where he trained as a young athlete. Joy Francis spoke to Smith during his short visit to the UK, organised by Operation Black Vote, for a special gala screening of SALUTE, a documentary on the historic moment.
What was going through your mind at the time when you raised your fist as your eyes were firmly closed?
I was praying. I have always been a churchgoer. I said The Lord’s Prayer, maybe twice.
In the documentary SALUTE, you said that you were being truthful at the time but it wasn’t what people wanted to hear. Based on the hostile reaction you received, did you ever believe you would get a chance to be heard?
I was hoping that something would happen, but I didn’t expect the magnitude of what did happen. I didn’t think that far ahead. The nature of what was needed to be done was quelled by the media and political structure, who viewed us as militants. My belief in what we did went beyond my thought process. It was an experience of a divine kind. That is where I got my strength from. Not from the public or the American system, but from my belief in my creator.
Was there any other motivation?
I needed to be helpful. I was always a helpful kid. I am the seventh of 12 brothers and sisters. We always worked toward surviving. That is what my college career was about, working to survive. I didn’t view the day from 8am to 5pm. I viewed the day from start to finish. You did what had to be done. It is hard to answer a question with just two or three words [laughs].
It is understandable as you were restricted from speaking for such a long time.
Yes, I couldn’t talk, but I wasn’t brought up talking anyway. There were a lot of us in the family and I got to the point where I didn’t want to talk. When I was at military school I prayed that I could be used one day. God is good. I got that $50 cheque every month, which helped me through college. Then they [the military] dismissed me because I tried to help the system.
You once said that running would eventually take you somewhere. It took you to college and the Olympics in 1968. Where did the raised fist on the podium take you?
It took me to what I divinely had to do – make a stand. Sometimes we fall but we get up. A lot of my people fell through the social structure and had no platform to get up from. I had not fallen. I was still running. I ran up on a platform to help them up. That was my thought process from an educational perspective. I didn’t think about my sacrifice. I just hoped that that my victory stand would do something; drive someone else’s progress. I don’t regret doing it, but I regret having to do it to bring a point out. I shouldn’t have had to sacrifice my life to do what the constitution was meant to do anyway.
With the London 2012 Games almost upon us, the timing of SALUTE and you being here are very significant. What do want the film to remind people of?
The need to improve. The need to be proactive. The need to know the truth. The need to stand up. The need to hear. It is a need to film. John [Carlos] and Peter [Norman, the white Australian 200 metre silver medallist] and me were friends first of all. Peter’s involvement with us was because he believed in human rights. Anyone could have been in second place and could have been involved in human rights. I don’t want people to think that the white kid made Tommie and John. He didn’t support us. He supported himself because he believed in human rights. If Peter had not worn that Olympic Project for Human Rights badge, nothing would have happened. John gave him that badge. Everything was symbolic, right to the end.
