‘You have the key’

By Kevin O’Brien

Speaking to an audience of students and teachers from across Central Wisconsin on Tuesday, former Olympic athlete John Carlos implored the young people in the room not to just stop and stare when they see injustice happening.

“You have the key, as young white kids, to change the course of this world,” he said. “If you see somebody being racist or biased or a bigot, and you sit there and allow it to happen rather than challenging your boy, then you’re just as bad as them.”

Carlos knows full well what it’s like to stand up to discrimination in spite of personal consequences. In 1968, after earning a bronze medal in the 200-meter dash at the Olympics in Mexico City, Carlos and fellow medal-winner Tommie Smith used the very public forum of the podium to protest racial segregation by raising their fists in a Black Power salute.

Their provocative gesture made headlines around the world, and the picture of Carlos and Smith with their black-gloved

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HISTORY SPEAKS - John Carlos, a former Olympic athlete who made history with his salute at the 1968 Olympics, speaks to students at Edgar High School Tuesday. In the background is a photo of the “Victory Salute” statue at San Jose University, which honors his act of protest.

STAFF PHOTO/KEVIN O’BRIEN Carlos

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hands in the air became an iconic image of the civil rights movement in the United States. As part of an intense backlash, Carlos and Smith were expelled from the U.S. Olympic team even though their medals still counted toward the team’s tally.

Carlos went on to break the world record in the 200-meter dash (though it was not counted because he wore unsanctioned spiked shoes) and tied the record for the 100yard dash. After retiring from running, he briefly played professional football in the NFL and then in Canada before becoming a school counselor and track and field coach.

Nearly 60 years after his act of protest, Carlos is still known by most people for that one pivotal moment. On Tuesday, he brought a message of courage, spiritual faith and resistance to drugs and crime to Edgar High School, which hosted him as part of the “A Walk in Their Shoes” series organized by teacher Colin Hanson and other area educators.

Students from Edgar, Marathon, Athens and Loyal filled the high school auditorium to hear Carlos speak about his life and ask him questions afterwards. Before he left the stage, he provided signed copies of the 1968 Olympics podium photo to several local schools officials and accepted an Edgar Wildcats shirt as a gift from Hanson.

Growing up in New York City in the 1950s and 60s, Carlos said he didn’t take much interest in school but he was curious enough to explore the freight trains in his neighborhood, where he found a lot of luxury items that his friends and family couldn’t afford. He saw himself as a “Robin Hood” character who would steal from the rich and give to the poor, and because he was a fast runner, he could normally evade the police.

At some point, though, two cops did catch him – which he considers a “blessing from the Almighty.” The officers told him he had a gift for running, which is something that initially made him smirk because “everybody in the neighborhood ran,” including his mother, who once chased down a purse snatcher.

Once he accepted his gift as an athlete, he started traveling to other parts of the world he never thought he would go, starting with Trinidad and then to Europe, where he made a point of going to see the Mona Lisa after getting a glimpse of it when it came to New York City. He said seeing that great work of art opened his eyes to the importance of education and to using the gift he had as a runner to entertain others.

“I felt good about that, but then I never forgot about those individuals who didn’t have food in their cabinets, so I started to focus and have a purpose for my life,” he said.

Carlos said he noticed signs of racism early in life, like when his friend Harold was forbidden from hanging out with him because his friend’s father thought it would harm his son’s job prospects.

“Well, I was really hurt by that because I had been in this man’s house so many times,” he said. “I never in a million years would have thought he felt that I would be a detriment to his son.”

Later, after getting married, while walking to the store to get milk for his wife, he came to the aid of a white boy being beaten up by three others. To his surprise, the guy he helped got mad at him, calling him the Nword and telling him to mind his own business.

“When he said that, I was in a state of shock,” he said. “I was in a state of shock for the better part of a year because I figured to myself ‘Man, this thing called racism is far deeper than I could ever imagine.’” Carlos said racism “pulled a trapdoor on humanity,” making him question later on in life whether he should try to administer CPR to to a white woman who was choking, for fear that her husband or boyfriend would get angry at him.

“That’s where we are in society today,” he said. “We don’t have an understanding about race relations – in terms of having harmony and love and compassion for one another – until we’re in a crisis situation.”

A life-changing moment for Carlos came when he was 22 years old and got invited to a meeting of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, where he met Martin Luther King Jr. and spoke to him about a proposed boycott of the 1968 Olympics over the involvement of apartheid South Africa and racial inequality.

Carlos recalled asking King why he was planning on going to Memphis even after he had received death threats. King just smiled and said that he had already been revered around the world for things he had done “in the flesh,” and if someone killed him, he’d be even more influential “in the spirit.”

So, in October of 1968 – just six months after King was assassinated in Memphis – Carlos said he still had MLK’s words in his mind when he took the podium and made his silent statement.

Carlos also spoke about his longtime friendship with Peter Norman, a white athlete from Australia who was standing on the silver medal podium when Carlos and Smith raised their fists. Norman didn’t join in the salute but, in an act of solidarity, he wore a badge supporting the Olympic Project for Human Rights.

Years later, when a statute called “Victory Salute” was unveiled at San Jose University, the spot where Norman had stood was left empty at his request so that anyone in the world who visits the monument can “stand in my spot” to show support for Carlos and Smith.

“He said ‘let me step back so others can step forward,’” Carlos said. “That’s what I loved about Peter then, that’s what I love about Peter now and that’s what I will love about him eternally. It ain’t about color. It’s about your soul.”

Carlos said he’s more of a spiritual person than a religious one, and he’s felt a divine influence over the course of his life that led him to that moment in Mexico City 57 years ago.

“My mission is to say ‘What can I do with the gift God gave me?’” he said. “He didn’t make me no track star just to be a track star.”

GLORY- Edgar High School’s choir performed “Glory,” a song written by rapper Common and singer John Legend for the movie “Selma,” before John Carlos Tuesday in the school’s auditorium. After Carlos spoke, Edgar Middle/High School principal Mike Wilhelm was one of several area administrators to receive a signed copy of the historic 1968 photo featuring Carlos and fellow athlete Tommie Smith giving the Black Power salute at the Olympics in Mexico City.

STAFF PHOTO/KEVIN O’BRIEN