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For this project, I am doing the summer Olympics of 1968, which took place in Mexico City. This was one of the most powerful Olympics ever. This was the famous Olympics where Tommie Smith and John Carlos held up their fists in the air to represent black power. Another important part about this Olympic was the background of it and why it became so powerful. Before these Olympics, in South Africa there was apartheid which was when there was just separation in a country based on race or some other characteristic. There was also some controversy in Mexico City becase of the Tlateco Massacre which was when over 300 students were killed for protesting all of the attention that was coming to Mexico City. But, because of this apartheid, South Africa was banned from the Olympics. The United States of America did not help in South Africa, so that caused many African-Americans and just people of all races to become very mad and angry at the United States. Some people that were supposed to be in the Olympics did not go because of their own decision. For example, one person that did not go that we all know or at least heard of was Kareem Abdul Jabbar. Some reasons that him along with many other people did not go were because of the apartheid in South Africa, America was not helping, and 1968 was the year that Martin Luther King got shot. Along with the apartheid going on, Martin Luther King was assassinated only a few months prior to it. Therefore, black folks and many other Americans were not calm because as we all know Martin Luther King was a very important person at the time and even today. So, with him being assassinated and then there being segregation because of your skin color or because of your race, citizens started to become furious and enraged. Although there was a lot of criticism, some African Americans still decided to go to the 1968 summer Olympics like George Foreman and the people that were mentioned earlier, Tommie Smith and John Carlos. George Foreman received a lot of criticism also in these Olympics because when he won the title he took an American flag and started to wave it around. This was wrong because after everything that was happening, he still was saying how he loved America and that just was not right. He was being selfish. There was an interview with John Carlos and Tommie Smith in the Boston Globe for the 1968 summer Olympics where they said they thought they were going to get shot.

[]... this is the link to an interview with Tommie Smith (part A) []..... this is part B of the interview above this interview was in the year 2007