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27 2 The Olympic Project for Human Rights Genesis and Response The Olympics help to bridge the gap of misunderstanding of people in this country. There is no place in the athletics world for politics. —Jesse Owens, quoted in the New York Times, November 26, 1967 He belongs to a controlled generation. . . . Does it occur to Jesse Owens that blacks are in-eligible by color-line and by endless economic obstacles to compete in some 80 percent of scheduled Olympic events? —Harry Edwards, The Revolt of the Black Athlete At the beginning of 1967, Ralph Boston was the long jump world record holder, having set the mark of eight meters, thirty-five centimeters two years previous. That was his fourth world record and he could also boast a gold medal in the 1960 Olympics and a silver medal in the Tokyo Games four years later. Boston was therefore a very likely candidate to make the U.S. team that would travel to Mexico City for the 1968 Olympics. In the year preceding these games there were calls from some within the black community to boycott the occasion as a protest against continued racial injustice in America. When asked about the possibility of this boycott, Boston gave a very clear opinion against it. “I don’t see that anything at all would be accomplished by Negroes boycotting the Olympic Games,” he told a reporter. “People train at least four years for this event, which is probably the greatest sporting event in the world.”1 At the age of twenty- 28 SIDELINED eight Boston knew this would most likely be his final opportunity to compete in the games. As he told me some years later, “I was not in favor of the boycott. . . . I guess that was quite selfish. . . . I knew it would be my last chance and so I wanted to go [to the Olympics].”2 The long jumper was against the civil rights agenda impinging upon the Olympic Games to the extent that black athletes would refuse to participate . Nevertheless, he had shown seven years earlier that he was prepared to use the boycotting of events as a way of drawing attention to racial inequality. Boston had been involved in an incident in Houston, Texas, in 1961 that provides a relatively rare example of athletes using their position to protest against racial injustice in the early 1960s. He was one of thirtyeight athletes who refused to participate in a track and field event because of the provision of segregated seating for spectators. The Houston branch of the NAACP, which had organized the protest, was criticized by Jesse Owens for putting pressure on athletes to boycott the event and so restricting their individual freedoms. The NAACP responded that no pressure was put on the athletes. In a separate incident involving the picketing of Houston football games because of segregated seating, the NAACP stated that the San Diego Chargers’black players were not to be criticized if they crossed the picket line.3 In the original incident that drew condemnation from Owens, Boston had shown that he was willing to sacrifice an athletic event to make a stand in the civil rights struggle. Clearly, though, the size of the Olympics and the prestige associated with winning medals far outweighed those of a regional tournament in Texas. Boston was also one of those athletes who chose to boycott a New York Athletic Club (NYAC) track and field event in early 1968. Black athletes had long complained about the Jim Crow policies of the club. Boston argued that while even Soviet athletes were accommodated when visiting the venue, black athletes were treated differently. “I never once set foot inside the New York Athletic Club,” said Boston.4 He joined many black athletes in boycotting the club’s meet in February 1968. This protest was organized by OPHR leader Harry Edwards. Boston was one of many black athletes who heard the rhetoric of Edwards and his supporters and had to make some lifechanging decisions about how far to engage in the black freedom struggle. For some, though, the choices were clear. In fact there were really no choices. When asked to explain what he envisaged when he stated in 1968 that the United States needed to change radically, Edwards responded, “For openers, the Federal Government, the honkies, the pigs in blue must go down South and take those crackers out of bed, the crackers who blew [3.145.115.195] Project MUSE (2024-04-25...

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