It's true that John Wooden forbade his players from joining a protest against the Vietnam War. In hindsight, I wonder if, a couple years later, he would have.
In 1968, Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their fists in black gloves as the national anthem was played. The IOC chairman Avery Brundage demanded that the USOC expel them from the US team, and banned them from the Olympic Village. When they returned home, Brent Musberger called them "black-skinned storm troopers."
Yet next week, Smith and Carlos will join the athletes from the 2016 Olympic team at the White House to be honored by President Barack Obama. And the Smithsonian reported that, "the tracksuit Smith was wearing that day, October 16, 1968, is among the artifacts acquired by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, along with the shoes he wore in that race, his official Olympic bag from the Games, and the box containing the olive tree branch he held as he stood on the medal platform." The museum's curator, Damion Thomas says that, "the gesture was both a symbol of people who are willing to take a stand against injustice, and of those who are willing to use their platform to advance issues related to social justice."
I wonder if, some time in the future, Tina Charles and Swin Cash will also be honored in the Smithsonian's museum. I wonder whether they, too, will be invited to the White House to be acknowledged for their actions "to advance issues related to social justice."
