page_title: Tommie Smith
section_title: Recognition
hierarchical_section_title: Tommie Smith / Recognition
caption_attribution_description: CAMPIONI DELLO SPORT 1969/70-n.12- TOMMIE SMITH (USA)-ATLETICA LEGG
context_page_description: Tommie C. Smith is an American former track & field athlete and former wide receiver in the American Football League. At the 1968 Summer Olympics, Smith, aged 24, won the 200-meter sprint finals and gold medal in 19.83 seconds – the first time the 20-second barrier was broken legally. His Black Power salute with John Carlos atop the medal podium to protest racism and injustice against African-Americans in the United States caused controversy, as it was seen as politicizing the Olympic Games. It remains a symbolic moment in the history of the Black Power movement.
context_section_description: Tommie Smith is featured in the 1999 HBO documentary Fists of Freedom: The Story of the '68 Summer Games. The documentary looks at events leading up to, during and after the Olympics, featuring interviews with Smith, Carlos and sociologist Harry Edwards, journalists and archival footage of the Games and the fallout after the raised fisted gloves by Carlos and Smith.
  We were not Antichrists.  We were just human beings who saw a need to bring attention to the inequality in our country.  I don't like the idea of people looking at it as negative.  There was nothing but a raised fist in the air and a bowed head, acknowledging the American flag – not symbolizing a hatred for it.
  For his lifelong commitment to athletics, education, and human rights, Smith received the Courage of Conscience Award from The Peace Abbey in Sherborn, Massachusetts.
  In 2004, was inaugurated in his presence in Saint-Ouen, France, a sports hall bearing his name.
  In 2005, a statue showing Smith and Carlos on the medal stand was constructed by political artist Rigo 23 and dedicated on the campus of San Jose State University.  Norman's Silver medal position was left vacant at his request, so visitors could pose for photos in solidarity with Smith and Carlos, as Norman had stood.
  A mural of the photo taken with Smith on the podium at the 1968 Olympics with Carlos and Norman was painted on the brick wall of a residence in Newtown, New South Wales, Australia, titled "Three Proud People Mexico 68". The house's owner, Silvio Offria, allowed an artist known only as "Donald" to paint the mural, and said that Norman came to Newtown to see the mural and have his photo taken with it before he died in 2006. The mural faces the train tracks linking Sydney city to the Western and Southern Suburbs. In 2012, the Sydney City Council heritage listed the mural to safeguard it, after it had faced possible demolition in 2010 to make way for a railway tunnel. Smith and Carlos were pallbearers at Norman's funeral in Melbourne in 2006.
  On July 16, 2008, Smith and Carlos accepted the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage for the salute at the 2008 ESPY Awards.
  In 2018, he received the Dresden Peace Prize.
caption: Tommie Smith in the 1960s
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