Fifty years ago this week, two proud Olympians raised their fists to call attention to social injustices. Their gesture made my heart swell with pride
In the summer of 1967, 100,000 fashion-forward and social-forward youth gathered in San Francisco in what has famously been called the Summer of Love. Similar gatherings occurred throughout the US, Canada, and Europe, all in an effort to reject the Vietnam War, consumerism, and governments who had proven less than forthright, while promoting the ideals of love, kindness, and compassion. The Summer of Love has been branded and celebrated as a symbol of the 60s. African Americans had another name for that summer: the Long, Hot Summer of 1967. During that time, 150 black communities burned in riots, with 26 people killed in Newark, New Jersey, and 43 in Detroit. By the following summer, Dr Martin Luther King Jr and Bobby Kennedy, two guiding lights in civil rights, had been assassinated. Black people were not feeling the love. That’s the context for the 1968 Summer Olympics when, 50 years ago this week, Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their gloved fists from the podium in Mexico City, medals dangling from their necks, while the US national anthem played. To many African Americans, that was the Summer of Love – and Pride, and Reckoning.
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Written by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/oct/17/smith-and-carlos-embodied-many-african-americans-summer-of-love-and-reckoning under the title “
“. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
