Interview of Tommie Smith

The 11th May 2016, Tommie Smith came at the CREPS of Antilles Guyana. Pupils showed his spectacle of dance, acrosport and after youngers and Tommie exchange about sporty's life and his action for the racism.

Tommie Smith: Being a part of the Reserve Officer’s Training Corps, I knew that I was possibly delving into something that the American military didn’t agree with and certainly didn’t honor, which was the objection to how ethnic cultures were perceived in the United States. The United States military is very explicit in its beliefs: you are part of the country, you will deal with it, because of laws. If you don’t, you will be court-martialed, etc, etc.

So you were quite conservative, then?
Yes, I was very very conservative. I joined the ROTC, and I was a good cadet! I thought I was, anyway. There’s this film depicting me marching with an M14 rifle on the fields of San Jose State University, where we trained. I was very proud of being a military preponderate. That’s why I made my military moves on the victory stand. Turning to the right and turning to the left—these moves I learned in the military.

What was their reaction to your actions on the victory stand?
When I got back from Mexico City, I was no longer a part of ROTC. I believe I was terminated because of my belief in the fight for equality, the fight for freedom. I was perceived as, a militant in my own country. That’s something I’ve never said to anybody.

Why do you think that was the case?
In the military you have rules and regulations. That is, you are governed by the rules of the US military and you go against nothing that might be contrary to what the military believes in, and what the United States believes, in regardless of who you are. But I knew without a doubt that because of the background of black people, that the military had a problem in understanding why we were fighting for freedom. You see, in the military, you fight for freedom from other countries. Not freedom withinyour country. So that’s where the civil liberties come in.

Which brings us to the Olympic Project for Human Rights and the proposed boycott.
Very true. The OPHR had more of a humanistic interest in the world, whether the person being mistreated was a person of color from the US or Africa or wherever.