His legs made him famous, carrying him to Olympic gold and twelve world records in track, but it was his right fist in a black glove that made him notorious and brought death threats to him and his family. 

In 1968 Tommie Smith spoke from the winners' podium in Mexico City not with his voice, but with his salute to the civil rights movement in America and to the crusade for human rights around the world. 

Speaking to Mr. Peter Greenhill's period 5 class on Monday, Dr. Smith recounted his early days as one of twelve children born to sharecroppers in Texas.  He escaped labor in the fields on Saturday by excelling in athletics: he was fast, tall and talented beyond his years.  From an early age he refused to bow and scrape to the whites who abused his father, and the seeds of his rebellious stance in Mexico City were sown. 

As he put it about that day, "The freedom of my soul depended on Tommie Smith standing for the freedom of others."  He went on to say, "The human rights issue is not a black issue; it's a human issue." 

He implored the overflow crowd of students to "keep an open mind" and to be ready for the moment in their lives when they will need to take a stand.  "And don't do something and expect someone else to take the rap.  Stand behind what you believe."

Dr. Smith stood behind his action, and it cost him his place on the Olympic team, the criticism of many Americans and even the love of his own family who could not understand why he would do such a thing. 

He has no regrets however, saying that he only wishes he had been more verbal sooner. "More black folks suffered for just being black than I have suffered for my act," he said. He added, in response to a question from a student that his wife described as "sweet," that he is back in the good graces of his family, forty years later. 

On lighter notes, he regaled the students with tales of the small gym in which he played basketball with a wall so close to the basket that he had to scrape himself off it after a dunk.  It was that short wall that caused him to quit hoops and devote himself to track.  And football.

Thanks to his dazzling speed, he won a position with the Cincinnati Bengals, playing for the legendary Paul Brown and an up and coming young assistant coach named Bill Walsh for whom Smith had the greatest respect.  After a picture perfect pass reception against the Oakland Raiders, "who really were really bad," his football career came to a violent end thanks to a brutal tackle from the notorious Jack Tatum who destroyed Smith's left shoulder. 

Although a group of black athletes had planned for some time to make individual protests at the 1968 Olympic Games, Smith's decision to raise a fist came upon him suddenly.  Many thought at the time, and even today, that he went overboard in his action. "I went overboard," Smith says, " to save others from drowning."

And the battle goes on today, Dr. and Mrs. Smith noted, as nooses are again used as racist symbols in school yards and on college campuses.  Smith works with young people in hope that they will not perpetuate the injustices and bigotry of their elders.