At the Olympic Games in Mexico City on October 16, 1968, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, two African American sprinters who had just won gold and bronze medals, respectively, appeared at their medal ceremony shoeless but wearing black socks (to symbolize black poverty) and a black glove on one hand. They bowed their heads when the “The Star-Spangled Banner” was played and, instead of saluting the American flag, pointedly looked away from it, raising their black-gloved clenched fists in a Black Power salute.