SALUTE A film about The Black Power Salute of the 68 Olympics

The 2008 Sydney Film Festival featured a documentary about the protest entitled Salute. The film was written, directed and produced by Matt Norman, a nephew of Peter Norman

RESOURCES AT FILMEDUCATION.ORG

(trailer + transcript)

http://www.filmeducation.org/salute/

http://www.filmeducation.org/salute/pdf/Film%20Education%20-%20Salute%20-%20Making%20a%20Stand.pdf

THE STORY BEHIND THE BLACK SALUTE AT THE OLYMPICS OF 68

John Carlos said:

"In life, there's the beginning and the end," he says. "The beginning don't matter. The end don't matter. All that matters is what you do in between – whether you're prepared to do what it takes to make change. There has to be physical and material sacrifice. When all the dust settles and we're getting ready to play down for the ninth inning, the greatest reward is to know that you did your job when you were here on the planet."

John Carlos (on right), Tommie Smith (centre) and Peter Norman, who wore an Olympic Project for Human Rights badge in support of their gesture.

When Norman died in 2006, Carlos and Smith were pallbearers at his funeral

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldclass/15333513

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldclass/15432738

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Olympics_Black_Power_salute

Tributes

 

San Jose State University Olympic Salute monument

"In a 2011 speech to the University of Guelph, Akaash Maharaj, a member of the Canadian Olympic Committee and head of Canada's Olympic Equestrian team, said, "In that moment, Tommie Smith, Peter Norman, and John Carlos became the living embodiments of Olympic idealism. Ever since, they have been inspirations to generations of athletes like myself, who can only aspire to their example of putting principle before personal interest. It was their misfortune to be far greater human beings than the leaders of the IOC of the day."^[24]

San Jose

In 2005, San Jose State University honored former students Smith and Carlos with a 22-foot high statue of their protest, created by artist Rigo 23. A student, Erik Grotz, initiated the project: "One of my professors was talking about unsung heroes and he mentioned Tommie Smith and John Carlos. He said these men had done a courageous thing to advance civil rights, and, yet, they had never been honored by their own school." In January 2007, History San Jose opened a new exhibit called Speed City: From Civil Rights to Black Power, covering the San Jose State athletic program "from which many student athletes became globally recognized figures as the Civil Rights and Black Power movements reshaped American society."^[26] Notable is the blank 2nd place podium (where Norman would have stood). The reason for Norman’s likeness’ absence from the monument was because he requested that his space was left empty so visitors to the exhibit could stand in his place and feel what he felt." 

SOURCE WIKIPEDIA

http://life.time.com/culture/black-power-salute-tommie-smith-and-john-carlos-at-the-1968-olympics/#1