Boycott A Major Issue

(T&FN, December 1967)

The proposal of a few Negro athletes to boycott the 1968 Olympic Games has triggered perhaps the greatest explosion of interest and controversy in the history of track and field.

As of now the boycott remains strictly a proposal, with few takers. But confusion abounds and only two things are certain--there will be a great deal more sound and fury, and the decisions are not yet final.

Highlights of the past month included:

•Members of a Black Youth Conference in Los Angeles Nov. 23 reportedly voted unanimously to boycott the Olympics. However, the meeting was closed to white reporters and conflicting statements were given by participants.

Some "50 to 60" athletes were reported present, including track stars Tommie Smith, Lee Evans, Otis Burrell and Ron Copeland, and basketball great Lew Alcindor.

•The proposed boycott received only scant support from Negro contenders for Olympic track berths. Of 27 such athletes quoted in the press or polled by T&FN, none said unequivocally they would support a boycott. Four (Smith, Evans, Bill Gaines and John Carlos) indicated they would boycott if asked to by certain unspecified black leaders. Three (Charles Craig, Steve Brown, and Jerry Proctor) said they would go with the majority. Two (Henry Jackson and Willie Davenport) are undecided.

Eighteen said they plan to compete (Burrell, Copeland, Dave Smith, Clarence Ray, Ralph Boston, Charlie Greene, Orin Richburg, Larry Livers, Darnell Mitchell, Ed Caruthers, Jim Freeman, Steve Carson, Thurman Boggess, Art Walker, John Thomas, Willie Turner, Gayle Hopkins, and Bob Beamon).

•Reaction of the press and the public was heavily against the boycott. Press and other comments, as well as opinions from contending athletes, are quoted elsewhere in this issue.

•Leader of the boycott movement was identified as Harry Edwards, a 178'3" discus thrower for San Jose State in 1962, and now a sociology professor there. Edwards announced later the movement had the wholehearted support of civil rights leaders Dr. Martin Luther King, Floyd McKissick and Louis Lomax.

•Edwards addressed a five-point demand to the United States Olympic Committee. He said the price for Olympic participation by Negroes includes:

1. Reinstatement of Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay) as heavyweight boxing champion. (The USOC is in no way connected with professional boxing.)

2. All-white teams from South Africa and Southern Rhodesia must be barred from the Olympics and their individual athletes be barred from competition in the US. (South Africa is now barred from the Olympics because of its racist policies while Southern Rhodesia cannot compete as it is not a member of the international Olympic movement. The USOC has no control over athletic competition in the US.

3. An additional Negro coach must be added to the US Olympic coaching staff. Stan Wright, one of five coaches, is a Negro. (The USOC has the power to meet this demand.)

4. At least one Negro must be placed on the USOC. (The USOC has the power to meet this demand.)

5. The New York Athletic Club must end its whites only policy. (The USOC has no control over the NYAC.)

A sixth demand was added later, calling for the ouster of Avery Brundage as president of the International Olympic Committee. Brundage, who is elected by the more than 100 nations in the IOC, and not by the USOC, said it was "a monstrous lie" to call him anti-Semitic or anti-Negro and said when he was president of the AAU he had the AAU Championships removed from New Orleans because the organizers refused to allow Negroes to compete.

•No charges of discrimination or racism were leveled against the Olympic movement, internationally or domestically. But Arthur Lentz, executive director of the USOC, and Payton Jordan, head Olympic track coach, both pledged their efforts in continuing this record of non-discrimination.

Track and Field News reaffirmed its unwritten policy of complete opposition to any discrimination in track and field and offered its support in combatting any that may be discovered. Publisher Bert Nelson said T&FN would investigate any charges of discrimination brought to its attention.

•Dick Drake's interview with Smith and Evans, published in T&FN before the Nov. 23 conference, attracted international attention. It was reprinted at length in the London Observer and the Washington Post, two of the world's more influential dailies, and many other publications including L'Equipe, Leichtathletik, Athletics Weekly and People's World, and the tape of the interview was requested by the Voice of America.

•Smith, Evans and Edwards received several hundred letters on the boycott Almost all were condemnatory and a majority were hate letters.