Tommie Smith

Tommie Smith is an American sprinter who won the 200 metres at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics and protested racial injustice on the medal podium.

1968 Summer Olympics: The Olympic Games held in Mexico City from 12 to 27 October 1968. Smith’s gold-medal race and podium protest took place at these Games.
Harry Edwards: An American sociologist and activist who organized the Olympic Project for Human Rights. Edwards helped build the movement that shaped Smith’s protest and the proposed Olympic boycott.
Olympic Project for Human Rights: A campaign founded by American athletes in 1967 to oppose racial discrimination in sport and society. The organization proposed a boycott and supplied the protest’s political context.
International Olympic Committee: The international organization that governs the Olympic Movement and oversees the Olympic Games. The IOC ordered Smith and Carlos removed from the Olympic Village after their protest.
1968 Olympic Black Power salute: A raised-fist protest by athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos during the 1968 Olympic medal ceremony. Smith’s gesture with John Carlos made the medal ceremony a worldwide protest image.
Avery Brundage: An American sports administrator who served as president of the International Olympic Committee from 1952 to 1972. Brundage led the IOC when it expelled Smith and Carlos from the Olympic Village.
Civil Rights Movement: A decades-long campaign for racial equality and the end of legalized segregation in the United States. Smith’s gesture addressed racial injustice during this broader struggle.
Olympic boycott: The organized refusal of athletes or nations to participate in the Olympic Games as political protest. The proposed 1968 boycott framed the choices Smith and other athletes faced.
John Carlos: An American sprinter who won bronze in the 200 metres at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. Carlos stood beside Smith and joined the podium protest.
Martin Luther King Jr.: An American civil rights leader who advocated nonviolent resistance and racial equality. Smith’s protest took place amid the civil rights struggle King helped lead.

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