History
October 16, 1968: Smith and Carlos Raise Their Fists in Mexico City
The medal-stand protest followed Tommie Smith’s world-record 200 metres and became a lasting image of athletes demanding racial equality.
On October 16, 1968, Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised black-gloved fists during the medal ceremony for the Olympic 200 metres in Mexico City. Smith had won gold in a world-record 19.83 seconds, with Carlos taking bronze and Australia’s Peter Norman silver.
The Americans stood shoeless and lowered their heads during the U.S. anthem as a protest against racial injustice. The U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum’s account places the gesture within their involvement in the Olympic Project for Human Rights, led by Harry Edwards.
Smith and Carlos were expelled from the U.S. team and the Olympic Village. They did not lose their medals, a distinction the museum makes when correcting a persistent misunderstanding about the punishment.
The protest often overshadows the race that made it possible. Smith’s winning time broke the 20-second barrier in the fully automatic record and stood for almost 11 years. Smith and Carlos were inducted into the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Hall of Fame in 2019, decades after the denunciations that followed their action in Mexico City.
