POLITICS

"If These Boys Are Serious ..."

As Black History Month closes, SportsJones looks at the boycott of the 1968 Olympics, and one of the most contentious years in American sports history

Print story Email story

by Royce Webb

Editor's Note: As Black History Month draws to a close, SportsJones revisits one of the most significant political acts in American sports history: the raised-fist protest of Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the 1968 Summer Olympic Games. In this article, Royce Webb examines media coverage of the events that precipitated it. His analysis makes the point that media storylines often supersede the specific details of a story itself. While we often think of the media as objective, and of racism as a thing of the past, this story reminds us that our blind spots and fears shape the stories we tell each other.

The roots of that famous night

In October, 1968, at the Mexico City Summer Olympic Games, Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their fists and became icons. After finishing first and third in the 200-meter dash, respectively, they climbed the medal podium wearing black socks and one black glove each. Carlos wore a beaded African necklace, Smith a black scarf, and all of the medalists, including Australian Peter Thompson, wore buttons that read "Olympic Project for Human Rights." After receiving their medals, Smith and Carlos raised their black-gloved fists into the air and bowed their heads as the American flag rose and "The Star-Spangled Banner" played.

This famous gesture was a compromise. Smith and Carlos, along with dozens of other African American athletes, had intended to boycott the Games altogether to protest the social and political situation for blacks in the U.S. By going to Mexico City and running in the Olympic Games, Smith and Carlos were making an accommodation to their talents, and they understood that the Olympics provided a unique stage for their protest.

This boycott is seldom discussed, but in some ways it is more important than the notorious black glove salute. In 1967 and ‘68, many of America’s most prominent black athletes decided to join in a boycott of the Mexico City Olympics. They were organized, in part, by sociologist Dr. Harry Edwards, who hoped the protest would call attention to enduring injustices facing black Americans.

It is the boycott, more than anything else, that explains Smith and Carlos's gesture. And it is the reaction to the planned boycott that explains the need for a boycott in the first place.

The following is a look at the ways the boycott was reported by the nation’s leading newspapers and magazines -- the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Christian Science Monitor, Time, Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report, Life, Sports Illustrated, the New York Times Magazine, Saturday Review, and the Saturday Evening Post.

The boycott certainly did not spring up from nowhere. Such an action had been discussed for several consecutive quadrennia before 1968. Furthermore, in the climate of the 1960s, with protest appearing to be a viable means of action, and with black consciousness and black nationalism increasing, the boycott seemed to be an idea whose time had come.

To the mass media, the boycott did not make nearly as much sense. There was some understanding of black grievances, but, generally speaking, the media was mystified as to why blacks would choose the sports arena in which to make their points. After all, athletics was one place, according to a 1967 U.S. News and World Report article, “where Negroes have struck it rich.”

If on the one hand the media was surprised by the boycott, they still were prepared. Demonstrations and Black Power protests were common at that time, and the media had developed sophisticated frames for covering them.

Next page: Media frames set the story

MORE POLITICS

Baseball & Civil Rights
Robinson, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, Paul Robeson, Ike, Malcolm X, JFK, LBJ, & Nixon quarrel over race and patriotism.

Radical Baseball
How communists campaigned to desegregate Major League Baseball.

The Price Of Athletic Success
Andrew Zimbalist on how money has threatened the amateur ideal and how the NCAA might save it.

Citizen Robinson
John Vernon considers what made Jackie Robinson the "literal embodiment of democracy."

The Dodgeball Debate
Should the game be banned from schools?

Dear Jackie, Dear Malcolm
A public debate between Malcolm X and Jackie Robinson over the path to social justice.

The Jackie Robinson Letters
The great ballplayer expresses his rage over the slow progress of civil rights in correspondence with four U.S. presidents -- Ike, JFK, LBJ, & Nixon.

MORE BY ROYCE WEBB

The Sideline Lunatic
Why Doug Collins shouldn’t be coach of the Wizards.

Shaq's Numbers Don't Line Up
The Lakers center's improvement at the free throw line is a big story, but is it true?

Shaq's Numbers Don't Line Up
The Lakers center's improvement at the free throw line is a big story, but is it true?

Control of the Game
Players, coaches, and refs fight it out in the real battle on the floor – the one for "control of the game."

The Real Slim Barkley
What did Charles Barkley really say about Tiger Woods and Eminem?