On this day, October 18, in 1968

Black American track medalists Tommie Smith and John Carlos were suspended from the US Olympic team for publicly displaying the "black power" fist at the Mexico City Olympic games two days earlier. As the American flag rose and the Star-Spangled Banner played, both Smith and Carlos had bowed their heads and raised their fists to represent black pride and unity. The gesture had been inspired by a recent movement encouraging black athletes to boycott the Olympics in protest of the oppression that black people still faced in America, despite the efforts of the civil rights movement. This display of resistance enraged many white Americans who stated that the Olympic games were supposed to be apolitical.