A Long Dignity Runner
by Frederick B. Hudson
The headstrong, athletically gifted junior high school student in Harlem didn't care much for reading. But when he looked up at the movie screen one day he found a role model. A
man wearing green tights. Not Green Lantern. Robin Hood.
He went to that movie again and again, entranced by the swashbuckler who took from the rich to feed the poor. Then he began to use the creative imagination which would spark a
worldwide image in Mexico City that children and adults would argue and debate for many years.
John Carlos was raised in Harlem during the 1950's-a very exciting time to stroll the streets of America's black capital.
 The Apollo Theatre was jumping; he had the opportunity to
meet many inspiring people-novelist James Baldwin, actor and activist Paul Robeson, photographer Gordon Parks, athletes Jackie Robinson, Wilma Rudolph and Sugar Ray
Robinson. But the figure who was the most influential was his dad, Earl Carlos, Sr.
His father was a World War I veteran who fought in the 369th Infantry in Europe who received the Medal of Citation Award for bravery in the European trenches. After returning from the
war., Earl left the South and started a shoe repair business in the middle of Harlem.
He taught his son the rich legacy of black people throughout the ages; this instruction was not wasted on John. At the age of seven he visualized himself on a world stage with
thousands of people cheering him on. He knew then he was going to be famous and shared his prophetic legacy with his family.
But back to Robin Hood. John was frustrated by the lack of black history is his schools' curricula and had difficulty respecting the teachers and principals-he sensed their contempt
and disdain.
Carlos took his awareness of black freedom fighters to the streets at an early age and fought anyone who challenged his worth and respect; he became a leader of his peer group
and when he realized that a railroad station near Yankee Stadium was unguarded, he saw the vehicle to put his idealism to work.
He told his friends that many poor people in his community lacked necessary items-particularly food-through no fault of their own. Armed with only carpenters' hammers, the youths
broke the locks of the boxcars and 'liberated" twenty-five pound boxes of fruits, vegetables, and meats. They had to run nearly three miles across the 155th Street Bridge with their
goods so they got ample exercise in this undertaking.
Many people in their neighborhood ate well for two years because of Harlem's Robin Hood and his Merry Men.
But a Sheriff of Nottingham was waiting in the wings to curtail this adventure. A black police detective told John one day at a track meet that they had a pretty good idea who the food
thieves were. He pointedly stressed that it was just a matter of time before the culprits were caught. He mentioned to John that he had a talent-for running, and encouraged him to
join a track team. Carlos took his advice and thus began a world renowned career.
After joining the Pioneer Track Club, John got his first international exposure in Trinidad in 1966 where he placed first in the one hundred meter dash in a meet. This victory helped
him obtain an athletic scholarship to East Texas State University near Dallas. There he experienced for the first time the Jim Crow segregation his father fled after the service.
Carlos had to use segregated toilet facilities and was called the n word by his coach. Despite winning firsts in three events in state competition, he decided to quit the team.
He gave a series of interviews to Texas media outlets that were reprinted all over the nation. He spoke not only with passion about the racism in Texas and the entire U.S., but
encouraged African American athletes to boycott the coming 1968 Olympics. He felt that the Olympics was a glorified plantation which only enriched the owners at the expense of the
worker-athletes who were forbidden to compete for money.
He soon was contacted by Harry Edwards, an Associate Professor of sociology at San Jose State University, who was organizing a possible boycott of the Olympics. Dr. Martin Luther
King also contacted Carlos and told him that if he returned from a commitment in Memphis that he would join Carlos and the other black athletes in a boycott.
Dr. King's prophetic if turned out to be correct. An assassin's bullet stopped him on a balcony in Memphis but John continued to seek vistas shared with the minister and his
movement. The runner continued to strategize with other track and field athletes throughout the preliminary Olympic trials to determine the best way to register a protest against
oppression.
The Mexican government's slaying of hundreds of its own students who protested the  Olympics' presence in a country they felt neglected its citizens' needs only steeled the
Americans' resolve to make a statement that would echo around the world.
When John Carlos won third place in the Olympic 200 meter race, he had concocted a plan with the gold medal winner, another black American, Tommy Smith. When they ascended
the ;victory stand, they donned black gloves and each thrust a fist in the air which the American national anthem played. This was their reminder to the world that all in America was
truly not beautiful.
The picture of the protest was repeated around the world. The Olympic Committee banned Carlos and Smith from further competition and tried to force them to leave Mexico.
The world press barraged the two with questions about their motivations. They repeated over and over their concerns and ideals to any microphone. John remembers his moment
on the victory stand clearly even today:
"I emphatically state that I was the most relaxed person in the stadium despite the fact that me and Tommy were facing death, ostracizing, economic death now, and a name that
would spell distaste for anyone who wanted to be associated with it. I was
standing there thinking about the prophetic vision that the Lord showed me when I was 7 years old….I was at peace in the middle of America's nightmare. I was ready to die.!"
But John Carlos is still alive. Despite riding out a economic and spiritual roller coaster and enduring devastating family ;crises he still clings to his belief that his stance on the victory platform in Mexico City had meaning and dignity.
He has written a biography with C. D. Jackson-the book is simply entitled Why? Its pages detail the answers to the question that has haunted his years. His run through over the
bridge with foods for the poor only prepared him for a much long run throughout history. He found something else to share. For further information about his universal sprint go to
www.johncarlos.com.
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