On October 16, 1968, two coloured US athletes, Tommy Smith and John Carlos, caused a sensation when they bowed their heads and raised their fists in a Black Power salute during the US national anthem at a medal award ceremony at the Mexico City Olympic Games.

Smith had won the gold medal and Carlos the bronze in the 200-metre sprint. In a fitting testament to freedom of speech in the US, both athletes were subsequently suspended from the US Olympic team and banned from the Olympic Village.

The silver medallist on that occasion was Peter Norman, a white Australian. Norman approved of the protest staged by Smith and Carlos, and showed this later that day by wearing the badge of the Olympic Project for Human Rights, the civil rights group that had inspired the protest by Smith and Carlos.

From Green Left Weekly, October 12, 2005.
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