1972: The price of the Olympic Black Power salute
Sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos made history when they raised their fist in a silent Black Power salute protest against ongoing racial inequity in the US at the 1968 Mexico Olympic Games.
While it marked a defining moment in the history of civil rights activism, their actions led to them being promptly banned by the US Olympic Committee and vilified by much of the American media.
By 1972, despite his world record being unbeaten, Smith was not preparing for the Munich Olympics. Instead the fastest man in the world was training schoolchildren in Wakefield in northern England to earn a living.
Asked by Nationwide if he had to go up on that Olympic podium again, would he “have staged those demonstrations again?”
“It’s kind of hard to say ‘staged that demonstration again’ because that demonstration came at the spur of the moment on a feeling but something would definitely have to be done and I would definitely do something,” he said.
Aspects of this programme reflect the time when it was made and contains language that may offend.