Later that fall, the same group at SJSU launched the Olympic Project for Human Rights, an organization that debated an Olympic boycott and later supported individual protests at the coming Olympic Games. The following year, Black college athletes used the 1968 Olympic Games to revolt. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, then called Lew Alcindor, refused to play in the Olympics all together. At the Games themselves, SJSU athletes, John Carlos, Tommie Smith and Lee Evans, and Tennessee State’s Wyomia Tyus all protested individually, and Carlos and Smith raised their fists on the medal stand. Later, Tyus and her teammates, Cal State’s Barbera Farrell, Alcorn State’s Mildrette Netter and high schooler Margaret Bailes, dedicated their gold medals from the 4 x 100m relay, to Carlos and Smith in a show of support and solidarity.
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