Tommie Smith: The Civil Rights Movement

Tommie Smith, a world renowned track and field athlete, famous for his world breaking times and his “human rights salute” during the Olympic medal ceremony alongside John Carlos once said, “We were just human beings who saw a need to bring attention to the inequality in our country” (“Welcome to TommieSmith.com | TommieSmith.com”). This quote stands true to all of the African American athletes around the world, but more specifically in the United States during the Civil Rights Movement. The Civil Rights Movement started on December 1, 1955 when an African American woman named Rosa Parks was arrested after refusing to sit at the back of the bus where African American people were forced to sit. This enforcement was part of the Jim Crow Laws,

Owens was a track and field superstar who, for a short time, had white Americans cheering him on. Jesse Owens was invited to participate in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany hosted by Hitler and the Nazi’s and “expected to be a German showcase and a statement for Aryan supremacy” (“Jesse Owens”). Because the Berlin Games were expected to be a showcase of German talent, many white Americans rallied together and cheered on Owens as he defeated the Aryan race and came back to the United States with four gold medals, alongside other six successful black athletes (“Jesse Owens”). African Americans were very dominant in the Berlin Olympics which challenged the theory of white supremacy and Aryan supremacy because they were competing right alongside white athletes and Aryan athletes and were beating them if not being just as successful as them. However, when Jesse returned home to the United States, white Americans went back to treating him like an African American by continuing being racist toward him. Owens states “When I came back to my native country, after all the stories about Hitler, I couldn't ride in the front of the bus," he said. "I had to go to the back door. I couldn't live where I wanted. I wasn't invited to shake hands with Hitler, but I wasn't invited to the White House to shake hands with the president, either” (“Jesse Owens”). This is ironic because this shows that even though they were once

Rudolph not only motivated African Americans to fight for equality with white Americans in sports and in life, but she also motivated women to fight for equality in the workforce and in sports. She did this by being the first African American woman to “win three gold medals at a single Olympics” and won a total of six gold medals total (“Wilma Rudolph”). She also founded the Wilma Rudolph Foundation, which “promotes amataur athletes,” which promotes the abilities and hard work shown by young athletes (“Wilma Rudolph”). Rudolph set many records and is “remembered as the fastest woman in track and a source of inspiration for generations of athletes. Due to her great history of competing against and along side white Americans, she showed the United States that African Americans were just as good, if not better than white Americans. She also motivated other great African American track and field athletes, including men and women, to join the track and field