John Carlos

This afternoon I attended the keynote address for Bellevue College's Martin Luther King, Jr. day celebration. The speakers were Olympic medalist and civil rights advocate John Carlos and sports/political writer Dave Zirin. Carlos won the bronze medal in the 200 meter dash at the 1968 Olympics and is famous (along with gold medalist Tommie Smith) for raising his black-gloved fist during the awards ceremony as a sign of support for human rights (which Carlos points out has since erroneously been referred to as a black power salute).

I was twelve at the time this happened and remember watching it on TV. My father was appalled so I didn't feel safe saying anything but I secretly believed they were heroic figures and admired them for their courage.

The theme of Carlos' and Zirin's talk was the relationship between athletes, social justice and how that plays out in the sphere of public opinion. Because of what Carlos did he was booed by the crowd, heavily criticized in the press and had to endure numerous forms of retaliation including death threats. However the image of him, Smith and Peter Norman (who supported them by wearing an OPHR badge during the ceremony) has become an icon of the American civil rights movement and has inspired untold other athletes to take a public stand for social justice. In their talk Zirin and Smith pointed out a number of recent acts by athletes, such as the Rams show of support for Ferguson protesters, that have been similarly motivated but I believe this sort of thing would not be possible without the courage of the athletes who came before them such as Carlos, Smith and Norman.