A salute on the medal stand

Tommie Smith wins the 200 meters in Mexico City in world-record time. John Carlos takes bronze. On the podium they raise black-gloved fists, in black socks, with no shoes. The anthem plays. The stadium goes quiet in the way stadiums do when they are not sure they are allowed to cheer.

The U.S. Olympic committee sends them home. Commentators call it a stunt. Other athletes, including Australian silver medalist Peter Norman, who wears a human-rights badge, understand it is not a stunt. It is a sentence spoken without a microphone.

Every athlete protest that follows — a kneel, a shirt, a missed White House visit — is measured against this picture. The medal stand was never only for smiling. Smith and Carlos made that impossible to forget.