The image of Tommie Smith and John Carlos raising their fists in defiance on the medal stand at the 1968 Summer Olympic Games in Mexico City as enduring an image on the American consciousness as those images of U.S. Marines raising the flag at Iwo Jima during World War II.

In the African-American community, the photograph of Smith and Carlos’ “Black Power Salute” is as visible and as pervasive as any still shots of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X or Huey P. Newton and the Black Panthers.

To African-Americans old and young, it is still today a powerful symbol of resistance against racism and oppression in America.

If you go on any American college campus, to street carnivals, Black History month celebrations, arts festival or fair, photographs of Smith and Carlos’ medal stand protest are on posters, printed illustrations, and T-shirts.

In 2005, a bronze statue of Smith and Carlos’ protest was built on the campus of San Jose State University, where the two men were student athletes.

The legacy of Oct. 16, 1968, is much bigger than that. It is even bigger than the world record in the 200-meter dash that Smith set at the time.

Smith said against the backdrop of racial unrest in America, the Vietnam War protests, apartheid in South Africa and the poor people’s movements around the world at the time, his and Carlos raised fists was an international symbol and principled stand for human rights.

“It was a cry for freedom and human rights issues taken on by young Black athletes of the United States to bring forth the effort and pride to be a part of a system that’s proactively changing,” Smith said. “(The bare feet) was symbolic to poverty. The glove was symbolic to strength and power. That’s where people get the Black power because I do believe that a few weeks before the Black Panthers used a fist to voice their opinions on power. They called it Black power. I called it human power or cry for freedom.”

In his book, “Silent Gesture: The Autobiography of Tommie Smith,” Smith, along with Baltimore Sun sports columnist David Steele, pens a personal memoir of his life and the legacy of the 1968 Olympic protest.

Smith is here in Philadelphia to promote his new book. He will be a book signing and reading at Temple University’s Paley Library today at 2:30 p.m.

Overall, the book is an inside look at Smith’s evolution as a student, athlete, and a man while coping with his life after taking his stand at the 1968 Olympics. It also focuses on the relationships between he, John Carlos, and other people involved in Smith’s education and development.

One of the things that Smith makes clear in the book about the events leading up to the protest on the medal stand and the organization that nurtured the idea of athletes taking a stand against racism and other acts of oppression – the Olympic Project for Human Rights – had very little to do with civil rights or the Black power movement or even the Black Panthers.

“It was the Olympic Project for Human Rights (OPHR) – It was not the Olympic Project for Black Rights,” Smith said. “It just so happens that it was Black athletes officiating the strength of that particular stand. Of course, it’s Black rights. Black rights are involved because we were Black and fighting for Black people, but it was for human issues. Black people are human, too. White folks are human, too. People in other countries are human, too, especially children. It was a human rights issue that all governments had to take a look at.”

Smith, who was a student at San Jose State College and a world-class sprinter at the time, was one of the founding members of OPHR, along with noted sociologist Harry Edwards, a who was a professor at San Jose State, Lee Evans – who won the gold medal in the 400-meter dash at the 1968 Olympics – and Ken Noel.

“(Edwards) thought it was necessary for Black athletes to stand up for something,” Smith said.

Originally, the athletes involved in the OPHR considered staging a boycott of the 1968 Summer Olympics, but at a meeting shortly before the games, they decided to come up with their own individual gestures of defiance.

As an athlete, Smith was one of the best sprinters in the world. He held world records in 200- and 400-meter dashes. He is the only man in history to hold 11 world records simultaneously.

After capturing the gold medal in the 200 meters, he and Carlos discussed their gesture hours before reaching the podium.

Smith, who had received death threats prior to the Olympics, said he aware of the possibility of assassination, which seemed like a distinct possibility considering that earlier in the year, King and Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated.

In the book, he said he felt that fear even when he took the starting block.

“I was concerned, but it didn’t bother me to a point where I was not going to do it,” Smith said. “Afraid, of course. The world is laden with craziness. At that particular time, there were a lot of people killed for even less.”

In spite of the very real threat to their lives, Smith and Carlos carried out their protest on the medal stand. Ironically, Smith, who was taking ROTC classes at the time, said he carried out the raising of his fist and his turn toward the flag with military precision.

“Once the national anthem began, I lifted my right hand to God and I bowed my head in prayer. As I did my military turn to the left, I picked my shoes up and I turned to the left facing the crowd,” Smith said. “As we crossed the track (after the anthem), we heard boos en masse. Boos everywhere. I quickly lifted my right fist in solidarity saying it’s over; I’ve done it. Everybody needed the strength and I raised my fist again in military style.”

One of the things that happened in the aftermath of Smith and Carlos’ protest was heavyweight boxer George Foreman waving the American flag after winning his gold medal.

Smith said Foreman was similar to today’s athletes who are all about money and not concerned about what happens to their fellow man.

“George said in one of his prime interviews that he’s so proud to be an American because he can remember one time when he was a thug, he fell into mud and got covered with mud and the dogs couldn’t sniff him and now he’s holding a gold medal,” Smith said. “You see where his mind is? It’s not about pride, it’s about George Foreman. The same type of mental sickness our athletes are going through now, George was going through it then.”

In the book, Smith discussed how his protest on the medal stand affected his life. In the chapter entitled, “Paying the Price,” Smith discusses how were he, his family and Carlos were shunned by people, even by African Americans, from the time they came home and through out the 1970s. He also played football for three years (1969-1971) with the Cincinnati Bengals.

In the early years following the protest, Smith’s family members were harassed to the point to where he said it ultimately killed his mother, broke up his marriage and kept him from making a living. He said getting his education and his spiritual beliefs helped him to survive the hard times.

“Where we came from was much worse than standing up on a victory stand telling the world I made it,” Smith said. “I only did because others needed to make it … It was not meant for me to be rich or on a Wheaties box. I knew that was not going to happen.

“I prayed that my life would be spared and because of my work, my dedication of not being afraid of working, sweating to make it I would help somebody else just by standing on that victory stand.”

Smith said athletes today are unwilling to speak out against injustice and racism today because they are unwilling to sacrifice what they have on the basis of principle for fear of losing money and endorsements.

“My cry for understanding is for those people who are not doing what they know they should be doing, not that they’re not doing anything because it’s going to hurt,” Smith said. “We are better socially situated now as a Black people than we ever were. It’s just that we don’t act upon the strength that we do now. Our risk factors are very low.

“I’m not really disappointed in what they’re not doing, I’m more disappointed in them realizing that they’re not. We got one spending money and the other the knowledge of where their money is going. That’s my problem with athletes these days.”