Track legend and human rights advocate John Carlos spoke at San Jose State University on Wednesday beneath a statue honoring him and alumnus Tommie Smith.
The event was part of the university’s Legacy Month, which began in 2009. Since 2024, San Jose has recognized Oct. 16 as Tommie Smith and John Carlos Day. Smith could not attend Wednesday’s event due to illness.
The two men made history at the 1968 Summer Olympics after receiving gold and bronze medals for the 200-meter race, when they gave a Black Power salute — a raised black-gloved fist — and bowed their heads in protest during the national anthem. They each wore an Olympic Project for Human Rights badge, no shoes and black socks representing Black poverty.
Carlos said children in the South, who didn’t have shoes, walked 15 miles a day to school. He said he unzipped his jacket on the Olympic podium to represent hard-working but unappreciated blue collar workers.
But the nation turned against them following their silent protest. Even Carlos’ father was ashamed of him. When Carlos visited his father in the hospital on his deathbed, his father asked him why he did “that bad thing.”
“My heart dropped down to my feet,” Carlos told San José Spotlight.
When he asked his father what he meant, he said go read the newspaper. Carlos told his father he was still the same man and they both cried.
Carlos said people need to unite to evoke change. He hopes the statue of himself and Smith on the SJSU campus starts conversations and moves people to act together to resolve issues.
“I want everyone that walks by, whether you’re a little grade school kid or an adult, to figure out what would possess Tommie Smith and John Carlos to go before the world and make a statement such as that,” he said. “When you question me in terms of why I did it, eventually it comes back to you, where you have to question yourself in terms of ‘What am I doing?’”
Assemblymember Ash Kalra said through these men, San Jose State University played a pivotal role in the fight for human rights and the civil rights movement and encouraged students to continue the fight.
“As others, including those in the White House, want to erase history, we’re not only going to remember our history, we’re going to teach our history for generations to come,” he said.
Kalra said he secured $9 million from the state Legislature to build a new San Jose State track and Speed City Legacy Center. The Speed City moniker came to SJSU after its athletes competed in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics and broke the 200-meter track record.
Los Angeles Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, who attended the event, said it’s important to hear from living legends.
“To be on this campus, to see this statue and to hear from John Carlos is a powerful moment that I will never personally forget,” he told San José Spotlight. “And of course, wishing Tommie Smith the best in his healing journey in the hospital.”
Bryan said President Donald Trump would remove the statue if he could, but this is the kind of legacy he can’t erase.
“For me, it’s a reminder that protest is supposed to be uncomfortable,” Bryan said. “Sometimes you’ve got to stand up and do what you know is right, even if it might come at personal cost. College campuses are the site of that radical thinking, of that free expression, of the ability to protest. A lot of change in the world has happened in courtyards just like this.”
Contact Lorraine Gabbert at [email protected].
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