Tommie Smith

His father let him run track on one condition — he had better win, or he would be back in the rows with everybody else. The Smiths were Texas sharecroppers, twelve children in all, and Tommie was the seventh. They left Clarksville for California when he was six and worked the fields of Kings County in the San Joaquin Valley, where he picked cotton and grapes as a boy. He won. Lemoore High School voted him its most valuable athlete in three sports, a scholarship carried him to San Jose State, and under Bud Winter he became the fastest man alive, holding 11 world records at once across the sprints and relays. On the same campus, a sociology lecturer named Harry Edwards was organising.

On October 16, 1968, nursing a torn groin, he came off the turn past John Carlos and won the 200 metres in 19.83 seconds, the first man under 20. They stood shoeless in black socks for poverty, Smith in a black scarf, Carlos in beads for the lynched. Carlos had left his gloves behind, so they split Smith's pair — one right fist, one left. All three medallists, Peter Norman of Australia included, wore Olympic Project for Human Rights badges. Smith has said since that the gesture was for human rights, not Black Power. Australia punished Norman for the badge.

Two days after the ceremony the IOC had them suspended from the team and put out of the Olympic Village, after Avery Brundage threatened to send the whole American track squad home. By Smith's own account, the work then dried up. The Rams wanted no part of him, and Jim Brown demanded back the 2,000 dollars he had lent against a football contract that never came. Smith has said the only job he could get was washing cars. He answered the phone to voices telling him he was going to die, and he checked under the hood of his car before starting it. His first marriage came apart. Farmers around Lemoore posted manure and dead rats to his mother, and he has linked her death, of a heart attack in 1970, to what they sent her.

He finished his degree, spent three seasons on the Cincinnati Bengals' taxi squad, taught grade school in Milpitas, and then built an academic career: sociology and track at Oberlin College, and 27 years teaching physical education and coaching at Santa Monica College. In 2005 San Jose State put a 22-foot statue of the podium at the centre of its campus. Norman's step was deliberately left empty, at his own request, so that visitors can climb up and stand where he stood. Smith and Carlos took the Arthur Ashe Courage Award in 2008. The gesture that got him thrown out of the Games is now taught as history in the country that punished him for it.

Tommie Smith's life against the full span of the corpus — the fading end marks a life still in progress.

• World best, 200 metres straight — 19.5 seconds other
  Run on a cinder track at San Jose State and not bettered until 2010 1966
• World record, 200 metres — 19.83 seconds other
  The first man under 20 seconds. The record stood for 11 years 1968
• The victory stand gesture other
  A gloved fist raised during the anthem, which he has always called a human rights salute 1968
• Silent Gesture book
  His autobiography, written with David Steele 2007
• Victory. Stand! book
  A graphic memoir with Derrick Barnes and Dawud Anyabwile, and a National Book Award finalist 2022

• 1950 aged ~6 The family leaves Clarksville, Texas for the San Joaquin Valley He was six. The Smiths worked the fields around Lemoore, and the children picked cotton and grapes.
• 1963 aged ~19 Wins the 440 yards at the California state meet and takes a scholarship to San Jose State Lemoore High School had voted him most valuable athlete in basketball, football and track.
• May 7, 1966 aged 21 Runs 19.5 for 200 metres on a straight cinder track The mark went unbeaten for 44 years, until Tyson Gay in 2010.
• 1967 aged ~23 Joins the Olympic Project for Human Rights The campaign Harry Edwards had built asked for Muhammad Ali's title back, Avery Brundage out of the IOC, and Black assistant coaches.
• October 16, 1968 aged 24 Wins the Olympic 200 metres in 19.83 seconds, then raises his fist on the podium The first man under 20 seconds. He and John Carlos stood shoeless in black socks while the anthem played.
• October 18, 1968 aged 24 Suspended from the US team and expelled from the Olympic Village Avery Brundage had threatened to send the entire American track team home. The medals were never taken back.
• 1970 aged ~26 His mother dies of a heart attack She had been sent manure and dead rats in the post. He has linked the two ever since.
• 1978 aged ~34 Denied tenure at Oberlin, then hired to coach at Santa Monica College He entered the National Track and Field Hall of Fame the same year and stayed at Santa Monica for 27.
• 2005 aged ~61 San Jose State unveils the Victory Salute statue Peter Norman's place on the second step was left empty at his own request, so that visitors could stand in it.

• John Carlos b. 1945
  Sprinter who raised a gloved fist on the 1968 Olympic podium stood beside him
• Muhammad Ali 1942–2016
  Boxing legend and cultural icon known for his athletic brilliance and principled stance against the Vietnam War draft. the title they demanded back
• Jesse Owens 1913–1980
  Track and field athlete who won four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, defying Nazi ideology. sent to talk the team down
• Colin Kaepernick b. 1987
  Quarterback who knelt during the national anthem in 2016 and never played in the NFL again. took the same risk later
• Jackie Robinson 1919–1972
  First African American to play in Major League Baseball in the modern era, breaking the color barrier. the generation before
• Bill Russell 1934–2022
  Eleven-time NBA champion, pioneering Black coach, and civil-rights advocate whose team-first leadership defined a dynasty. fellow dissenter in sport