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• Mr. Smith's official site
• Article on the Tommie Smith Youth Track Initiative

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Tavis: When Tommie Smith won his gold medal in the 200 meters at the 1968 Summer Games in Mexico City, this photograph became one of the most enduring images in the history of the Olympics. And while this singular event would define much of his life, he'd go on to a successful career as a track and field coach at Santa Monica City College.

His new book is called "Silent Gesture: The Autobiography of Tommie Smith." It's about time you’ve put it in your own words, and I'm honored to have you on the program.

Tommie Smith: Grace and mercy, Tavis. Thank you, thank you.

Tavis: Good to see you, man. So much has been written about you over the years. How have you navigated people writing and commenting and offering their own ideas about what happened before you got around to put it in your own words?

Smith: I remained faithful, knowing that if I do that, then I could take my burdens to the altar and leave them and walk away and do something different. So, I was very powerful in that direction to depend on a higher source.

Tavis: What have you had to listen to for all these years, before you got around to telling your own story in your own words, that has most bothered you? The thing that's most disturbed you, the thing they got wrong the most, the thing you got sick and tired of hearing. What was it?

Smith: I got kicked off the team, kicked out of Mexico City, sent home, and medals taken away. Which was all wrong. That bothers me.

Tavis: And the truth was, or is?

Smith: None. It was a slap on the hand, said, "Don't you do that again, boy." And I said, "Yes, sir." (Laughs) But actually, (sounds like) futility. We’re still doing what is necessary to move on practicably in a system that doesn’t represent us fully.

Tavis: And yet you do acknowledge in the book, and have to acknowledge, I suspect, that there was a lot of hell to pay for what you did.

Smith: Oh, yes, indeed.

Tavis: Tell me about some of that.

Smith: Well, being a young Black man in the system, sometimes, you have to move proactively and justly toward chiseling out a wall just to get to the heart so you can start working on it; then (sounds like) it would future out. That was the hardest thing. And finishing my education at San Jose State University, going to grad school, getting a Master's degree in sociology, and then being able to work on it.

Tavis, in 1968, we had a platform. We had no words, because we couldn’t say it. So we call it "the silent gesture heard around the world." As a prayer - as the hand went up and you saw the bare feet, it was a prayer and a hope that this wouldn’t be taken negatively; only a cry for freedom in a system which needed a shot in the arm.

Tavis: You say a cry for freedom. Tell me more about what you were trying to say that day with that silent gesture.

Smith: Being proactive and being involved in social change, social movement. During that year, the Democratic Convention, the apartheid situation. The women was in peril because of them not being treated fully. The New York AC, we needed more African Americans in the public school system, in the junior college, college, especially the professional ranks in terms of sports, in terms about representing our kids as the system did not, and pushing that forward.

Tavis: So you saw that silent gesture, then, to your point now, representative of all kinds of struggles that Black folk were enduring.

Smith: Oh, of course. We live in all kind of situations in this country, different areas. We're just not pointing in one direction. We're multileveled, and it's getting bigger. And the problem is getting more massive because it's getting bigger, and our youth are going different ways now. They're not consciously focusing on one thing. They focus on a lot of things. Now it's time for us to start thinking ahead to move forward, and to use things directly instead of indirectly.

Tavis: Let me back up again to 1968. Everybody has seen that picture a gazillion times, I suspect. We know the courage and the conviction and the commitment of you and your partner. I should his name out there: John Carlos. That's the other brother, in case you were telling me, what was his name, what was his name? (Laughs) Tommie Smith and John Carlos.

So the two of you made your mark, took advantage of that moment. Take me back and tell me how that became the gesture. When did you all decide that that was going to be the gesture? And tell me about the gesture itself.

Smith: The Olympic Project for Human Rights was much older. It was about a year and four months old before the victory stand. And we traveled around the country, talked to athletes about the Olympic Project of Human Rights, what it was, and so forth and so on. That took a while. It took more than a year. The last meeting was just before we left this country to go to Mexico City and Denver, Colorado.

The Black athletes met and said, "No, no boycott." I knew that was gonna happen, and I was very happy it happened, but if there was going to be a boycott, I would have gone with the majority also. It was decided because of…

Tavis: Stop, stop, one second. So had there been a boycott of the Olympics, you would have boycotted.

Smith: Oh, yes, indeed.

Tavis: You would have passed up your opportunity to win that gold medal?

Smith: This is the chance to deliver. This was a chance to prove. It was a sacrifice necessary. Tavis, remember that a lot of people died so I could be there. So at least I could sacrifice, and live.

Tavis: But you know there are a lot of folk who get that one shot at that one gold medal, and they're like, you know what?

Smith: There's a lot of people who got that one shot, and didn’t get up from it.

Tavis: Yeah. (Laughs) Yeah.

Smith: That one shot we had, we took it. And we did enough dodging through grace, and we got there and we did it. The victory stand represented a cry for freedom. And people understood that vision, but didn’t know what we needed to say. We needed to say what they felt. It was a silent gesture. It wasn't verbose at all. It was a silent.

And this is what's so profound about that, in retrospect. That it was silent, and people understood because it was their thought that brought them to fruition of that need.

Tavis: There are a lot of folks who thought these two Negroes chose the wrong moment on the wrong stage at the wrong time to make whatever statement they wanted to make. Never mind the fact - there are folk I've read about over the years who even felt in solidarity with you and other African Americans - you and John Carlos and other African Americans about the hell that Black folk were catching. But they though that what ya'll did here was the wrong place, the wrong time, the wrong gesture.

Smith: They missed the point. It was. We could have done the same thing in Los Angeles a few months before. But the plug could have been pulled, and the juice would never have reached the people that it needed to reach. It needed to reach the world, and not just the American system, because it was a human rights situation done by young Black Americans in hope of peace.

Not in hope of dealing just with one culture. We put our lives on the line for a lot of people and for a lot of reasons. On a world stage, dealing with our Ph.D.s in speed. It got us there, and Tavis, I speedily wanted to get off that stand, too.

Tavis: (Laugh) I'm sure you did. To your point now, tell me, Tommie Smith, whether or not - to your point about wanting to speedily get off that platform, tell me whether or not there has been a day in your life - a moment, perhaps moments, days, where you actually regretted what you did.

Smith: Regret is going in reverse. I did because of a need. Regret is definitely demoralizing to anybody's psyche once they’ve made up their mind to, and looked back and said, "Oh my God, I didn’t think enough." I pity the fool.

Tavis: I've heard that somewhere before.

Smith: I think so.

Tavis: I pity the fool. (Laughs) Just missing my gold chains, that's all.

Smith: Yes, indeed, Tavis.

Tavis: (Laughs) You slid earlier - and I love your humility about this, and your humanity about what you did for the rest of us. But you said it was a slap on the wrist. I know from reading the book and everything else I can get my hands on about you over the years - I'm so honored to meet you - I know that it was more than just a slap on the wrist.

You and John Carlos caught pure, unadulterated hell when ya'll got back from Mexico City. Tell me the worst of what you had to endure.

Tavis: We wore gloves, so that slap on the wrist didn’t hurt very much. (Laughs) But in actuality, we did catch H-E-double L the whole time from our departure from the victory stand. But I think John Carlos and Tommie Smith knew this, but we didn’t know how much hell we would catch. Hell has an undivided attention that wreaks on everybody, and if you're faithful enough in what you're doing, and like I said, take your problems to the altar and leave them, you will fare off much better than human nature can provide for you.

So we did it because it was a need, Tavis. It was a need. We were young Black men at a time when we were at our weakest being young Black men. And it was time for us to stand up in our area to prove that just because you're Black and you're fast, that doesn’t mean that you're stupid.

Tavis: You all were what age at that time?

Smith: I was going on the grand age of 22.

Tavis: And John was?

Smith: John's a year younger.

Tavis: So you mentioned a moment ago that you were at your most vulnerable. I'm paraphrasing. You were at your most vulnerable then. Where do 21 and 22 year olds find that kind of courage, conviction, and commitment to take that kind of international risk? Where'd that come from?

Smith: We had a fortitude of faith, which is the substance of things hoped for, and evidence of things not....

Tavis: Evidence of things not seen.

Smith: Amen, son. And from the back woods of Texas, seeing things that right now, people get shot for in the streets. John Carlos was from Harlem, of course. He was a bit more - still is more verbose than I. And with Carlos and Smith together, we could do almost anything. And this is what was decided by John Carlos and I, to make a stand that wouldn’t be forgot the next day. But we didn’t know how long it would last. Since it's lasting that long, we had to finish our education so we could profoundly discuss (unintelligible).

Tavis: Are you amazed, all these years later, at the enduring legacy of that picture, of that moment?

Smith: I'm happy. I'm very proud. I get a chance to sensibly and socially interject, through words. Because of the silent gesture, I had no chance to do it. I had not had a chance to finish my education, and certainly not to go on to get my Master's and Ph.D. Now I got that, I can talk to my students. Tavis, I spent 27 years at a college here in California, and six years at Overland College in Ohio.

The division three, four year college. So I've been around students long enough to understand that the need is paramount. And there needs to be somebody who'll look at their student and say, "Do you hear me?" And not afraid of being shot. Because John Carlos and I could have been shot any day of our lives, just walking around the street.

Tavis: Every time I think of Tommie Smith and John Carlos, I think of the lack - with all due respect - the lack of courage and conviction and commitment on the part of today's Black athlete. I recommend this book to every one of you, and everybody else in America. It's called "Silent Gesture: The Autobiography of Tommie Smith." A legend, he and John Carlos, in their own time. And what a pleasure to have you on this program.

Smith: Thank you, son.

Tavis: Nice to see you.