Olympic Project for Human Rights

[2] While the OPHR advocated for a boycott backed by all Black Americans, the group did not actively include women in its discussions and in the end was mostly composed of track and field athletes.

[7] Calls for Black Americans to boycott the Olympic Games over race relations in the United States emerged alongside these mid-20th century conversations about the role of athletics.

At this meeting, attendees, including Smith and his San Jose State teammate Lee Evans, created the OPHR and planned a workshop to discuss the potential for a Black American boycott of the upcoming Summer Olympics.

"[19] Others that supported the boycott, such as Tommie Smith, John Carlos, and Lee Evans, were more critical of sport's ability to improve conditions of Black people in the United States.

[21] At the time, the NYAC excluded Black and Jewish individuals from normal membership at the club but allowed them to compete in its events, as their athletic performances drew large crowds and higher ticket sales for the organization.

[23] Several teams of white athletes, including those from universities, like Villanova, Manhattan, and Georgetown, and a seven-man Russian squad, also pulled out to support this boycott against racism and antisemitism.

[24] The withdrawal of the Russian athletes was in line with other ways members of the Soviet Union weaponized sport and the subpar race relations of the United States to argue against democracy during the Cold War.

[25] At the same time the OHPR boycotted the NYAC, on February 15, 1968, the IOC announced its decision to readmit South Africa into Olympic competition, on the condition the country send an integrated team to Mexico City.

[34] Following South Africa's resuspension, members of the media began to speculate whether the OPHR's proposed boycott would still occur, as the IOC had just met one of the six conditions the group outlined in December 1967.

The final decision on whether Black American athletes would go through with the OPHR's boycott occurred at the semi-final United States Olympic track and field trials in Los Angeles on June 29–30, 1968.

[citation needed] While the boycott failed to materialize, two members of the OPHR, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, became part of what some consider one of the most iconic, controversial, and important moments in sport history.

In an interview with Howard Cosell for the American Broadcasting Company, Smith interpreted the different visual elements of the protest, stating:[42]My raised right hand stood for power in black America.

"[48] Complaints largely centered on how Smith and Carlos politicized the unpolitical Olympics, that their protest would negatively impact race relations in the United States, and that they were disrespectful to their country.

The two received hate mail and death threats, struggled economically as employers refused to hire them, and experienced troubled marriages, due, in part, to the pressure caused by these other forms of backlash they encountered.

[50] Despite the USOC's warning and the committee sending former Olympian Jesse Owens to advise a group of Black Americans to not protest, some remained upset over Smith's and Carlos' suspensions and performed minor displays at the Olympics.

[56] Ralph Boston, a Black American who initially opposed the OPHR but later warmed to its proposed boycott, received third place in the long jump event.

[56] As with Evans and his fellow 400-meter sprinters, however, Beamon and Boston did not push their demonstrations far enough to elicit the same critical responses Smith and Carlos had received a few days prior.

[58] Later, in Mexico City, on October 17, 1968, the USOC called-in and investigated Hoffman, who sat with Tommie Smith's and John Carlos' wives during the sprinters' protest, for his involvement in the pair's Black Power salute.

Prior to the awards ceremony, Norman asked Smith and Carlos if there was any way he could support the two's protest, before eventually borrowing an OPHR button from Paul Hoffman.

[62] Norman's support for Smith's, Carlos', and the OPHR's human rights and race relations concerns stemmed from his own opposition to his country's discriminatory White Australia policy.

The Parliament of Australia later issued an apology to Norman in 2012, six years after his death, for the country's treatment of him and its failure to recognize the significance of his role in supporting Smith and Carlos, while the AOC also presented him an Order of Merit posthumously in 2018.

[66] Sprinter Wyomia Tyus noted this exclusion, as she criticized the men of the OPHR for believing Black women supported the group's objective without seeking their involvement.

[67] According to historian Amy Bass, the omittance of women in the group's ranks was not a unique issue to the OPHR but was a common practice observable in other social justice movements throughout the 1960s as well.

When traveling to the Mexico City Olympics, members of the Tennessee State Tigerbelles, like Tyus, Martha Watson, and Ellie Montgomery, wore OPHR buttons.

[70] Tyus and the other Americans of the gold-winning 4 x 100 meter-relay team (Barbara Ferrell, Margaret Bailes, and Mildrette Netter) also dedicated their medals to Tommie Smith and John Carlos following the pair's salutes and subsequent suspensions.

While some international athletes criticized the sprinters' actions, there were others alongside Norman that lent their support to the OPHR's mission in fighting for Black individuals' human rights globally.

[4] In the fall of 2016, Kaepernick began to sit, and later kneel, during the playing of "The Star-Spangled Banner" before the start of games in the NFL, protesting racial injustice and police brutality against Black people in the United States.

[74] Like Carlos and Smith, Kaepernick specifically protested during the playing of the national anthem and experienced backlash for his actions from the media, politicians, veteran supporters, and other sources.

[80] American track and field athlete Raven Saunders placed second in the shot put event at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, while on the medal podium she crossed her arms in the shape of an "X."