The Olympics are underway again. Do you remember the 1968 Olympics? In 1968 while the civil rights movement was growing in the United States , the Olympics were held in Mexico City . Black runners from the US team had just taken two of the three medals in the 200 metre race
As they approached the Olympic podium, they took a stand, barefoot to symbolize poverty and oppression black people suffer in America , they each raised a black-gloved fist in the ‘salute’ of the American ‘black power’ human rights movement. A hush came over the stadium, and even the person singing the ‘Star Spangled Banner’ stopped. Then boos. Then insults and worse as American racism overflowed on the victorious American athletes
Despite the oppression and isolation the two black athletes faced after their protest, the image of them with fists raised has become one of the defining images of the American civil rights movement.
There is another man in the picture. He is a white man who is also on the podium; he won the silver medal and he is wearing the same protest badge as his fellow medalists.
His name was Peter Norman. He was the Australian athlete who had won a silver medal in that same race. He had just run his personal best and smashed the Australian record (which is still unbeaten).
Norman, who grew up in a Salvation Army family, was a strong Christian. “I’ll stand with you” he said to the men protesting institutional racism in America . Norman asked for the civil rights badge to wear as a symbol of his solidarity, saying ‘I believe in what you believe.’
Upon returning to Australia , Peter was ostracized by his community. For years, his only chance of being ‘pardoned’ by Australia for his part in the protest for equal rights for people in the US was to publicly condemn the actions of his co-medalists. Only this would allow him back into the Australian Olympic fold. Instead, Peter held strong; he refused to condemn his fellow athletes and co-civil rights activists. And even though he holds records that have not been broken even today, he was never allowed to compete again for his country.
He paid the price with his choice. ‘It wasn’t just a simple gesture to help us’, says one of the US protesters, ‘it was his fight’. He was a white Australian among two American men of colour, giving up his own future, in his own country, in the hopes that others, in a foreign country, might have a future.
Peter rarely talked publicly about his part in history, but his words in a documentary, sum it up: ‘I couldn’t see why a black man couldn’t drink the same water from a water fountain, take the same bus, or go to the same school as a white man,’ he says.
‘It has been said that sharing my silver medal with that incident detracted from my performance. On the contrary, I have to confess, I was rather proud to be part of it.’
As both Salvationists and Christians may we, like Peter, have the courage to stand up for Christ and our neighbour no matter what the cost.
Based on Ingrid Barratt ,‘I’ll Stand by You’, War Cry (6 Aug 2016), pp 10-11
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