When John Carlos raised his fist in a black power hello to the 1968 Olympics that changed the history of the twentieth century - and his own life - forever. How do you feel now?
You're not likely to be familiar with the name of Juan Carlos. But certainly know his image. It is in the 1968 Mexico Olympic Games and the medals were hung around the neck of Tommie Smith (U.S. gold), Peter Norman (Australia, money) and Carlos (USA, bronze medal). As the Star-Spangled Banner began to play, Smith and Carlos, two American black with black gloves, raise their fists in the salvation of Black Power. It is a symbol of resistance and defiance, branded on the history of the 20th century that Charles feels he was put on Earth to do.
"In life, there is the beginning and end," he says. "The beginning does not matter in the end it does not matter All that matters This is what you do between the two - .... If you are willing to do whatever it takes to make the change must have physical and material sacrifice When all the dust settles and we prepare to play down to the ninth inning, the biggest reward is knowing you've done your job when you were here on earth. "
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Carlos was, to say the least, eventful. Raised by two parents involved, work, learn to hurry with his friends in Harlem and work their way out and in trouble. As a teenager, he used to go after Malcolm X in the street after their speeches and questions shot at him. Carlos always knew he was good at sports and originally wanted to be an Olympic swimmer, until his father broke the training facilities were needed in private clubs and wealthy whites. I used to steal food from freight trains with their friends and then run with him in Harlem and give to the poor. When police chased him, he was the one who was never caught. Performance was so natural, never thought of him as a skill.
this unique moment on the podium cost dear Charles. More than four decades later, you will find on your desktop in a large building behind the laptop basketball courts in Palm Springs, California High School, where he worked as a counselor. Among the family photos on the wall are the most vague allusions to his moment in history. Photos of Malcolm X and African American writer Zora Neale Hurston, the oath of allegiance, that school children in the United States to say the flag every day, and a small sign saying go for Olympic gold.
Despite its challenges, Carlos loves his job. "Being a counselor, you should talk to children as if speaking to a thousand people," he said. "Sometimes people say," I love you "and say, 'I do not want your love and say," Well, is it, then we will have to deal with it. "And I learn a lot from them, too."
bald, tall, with a gray beard, Carlos slipped into old age with a distinctive style and form of coexistence, and more than a passing resemblance to the late activist and intellectual WEB DuBois.
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"My first thought was the chains are broken," said Charles, throwing his head back to how he felt at that time. "And will never be able to Juan Carlos interfere again. Because he had done could not be resumed. Materially, some of us in the prison system is literally chained. The biggest problem is that fear of offending our oppressors.
"I had a moral obligation to raise the morale was much stronger than the rules and regulations that God told the angels that day:" Stand back - I'll have to do .. that for me. ""
The image captures well the sense of momentary rebellion. But what we can do is to evoke the human sense of emotional confusion and resolution made possible individual or collective, global response to his audacity. In his book, The Story of Juan Carlos, in the seconds between the podium and the game anthem, Carlos says that his mind was on staff policies and vice versa. Among other things, which results in painful explanation of why his father could not become an Olympic swimmer, impoverishment and segregation results from Harlem, calls Martin Luther King and Malcolm X "being true to yourself Similarly, even if it hurts ", and his family. The last thought before the band played was" Damn, when this is done, can not be resumed.
"I know that sounds like a lot of thoughts for a few minutes standing on a podium," he wrote. "But honestly this has been zigzagged through my brain like lightning."
anticipation of some kind of protest was on foot, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) sent to Jesse Owens talk. (Four gold medals at the Owens Berlin Olympics in 1936 held great symbolic importance, given Hitler's belief in Aryan supremacy.) The spirit of Charles was made. When he hit Smith and his position, Carlos feared the worst. Look at the picture and see that although Smith's arm and long-standing, Carlos has a slightly bent at the elbow. "I wanted to make sure that if someone we ran, I could throw a hammer," he wrote. "We have received so many threats that led to that time, I refused to be helpless at the moment of truth."
was also a moment of silence. "You could have heard a frog urine on cotton. There is something terrible to hear 50,000 people are silent, as in the eye of a hurricane."
And then came the storm. First boos. Second, insults and worse. People throwing things and shouting racial slurs. "Blacks back to Africa!" And, "I can not believe this is how you treat us blacks after being allowed to run in our games."
"The fire was all around me," says Carlos. IOC President ordered Smith and Carlos were suspended from the team of the United States and the Olympic Village. Time magazine showed the Olympic logo with the words angry, nasty, ugly, instead of faster, higher, stronger. The Los Angeles Times accused of participating in a "neo-Nazi salute."
Beyond the creation of the resonance of the image can not be overstated. The year was 1968, the Black Power movement had cried gatherings of human post-civil protests against the Vietnam War have been expanded. This year, students from all over Europe, east and west, had been in rebellion against war, tyranny and capitalism.
in the world, was understood as an act of solidarity with all those fighting for greater equality, justice and human rights. Margaret Lambert, a Jewish high jumper who was forced, for the demonstration, to test the 1936 German Olympic team, knowing he would never be allowed to compete, said how delighted he made her feel. "When I saw these two guys with their fists on the victory stand, which made my heart jump. It was beautiful."
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