Victory. Stand!: Raising My Fist for Justice

After Tommie and John leave the podium, they hear a mix of applause and jeers. They lift their fists again.

The president of the International Olympic Committee suspends them. The athletes don’t run in their other events. Before they leave, both Tommie and John do an interview with a reporter, and Tommie emphasizes that they did it so that the world would see that Black Americans are not treated like equals. At home, American journalists lambast the runners, and Tommie is fired from his job at North American Pontiac before he even lands back in the United States. Even though they receive some support from the president of San Jose State University, pressure from college staff members and alumni force the president to resign soon after.

Tommie works whatever jobs he can to take care of his family. He takes night classes to finish his degree, and he student teaches at his high school. Those at his alma mater don’t realize that he was “back as an educated man, a gold-medal-winning educated man” (185). In the spring of 1969, Tommie graduates from college, and his old roommate, Saint Saffold, is playing football for the Cincinnati Bengals.