Silent Gesture: The Autobiography of Tommie Smith (Sporting)

Editorial Reviews. From Booklist. Tommie Smith raised his black-gloved right fist after receiving the meter gold medal at the Mexico City Olympics.
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The structure is at times nonexistent and some parts especially towards the end appear rather like the random ramblings of an old man. So I can not give this more than 3 stars.


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Sep 11, Byron rated it did not like it. Tommie Smith wrote this book, I know that because Tommie Smith himself mentions Tommie Smith constantly throughout as Tommie Smith, an extremely annoying habit and a real drag to try and read!

Silent Gesture: The Autobiography of Tommie Smith

He's taken an inspirational and amazing story and rendered it extremely difficult to digest in written format. May 07, BetsyD rated it it was ok. What a boring book. It was clearly geared toward people who already knew about Mexico City, , and Tommie Smith habitually refers to himself in the third person. Jason Bohne rated it really liked it Jul 15, Andy Lieberherr rated it it was amazing Mar 08, Dan rated it really liked it May 10, M Beal rated it it was ok Sep 20, Rick Reitzug rated it liked it Jan 28, Ashley rated it it was amazing Apr 05, Letha Parrott-Cookie rated it it was ok Aug 28, Kendall Hill rated it liked it Jan 05, Tasha rated it really liked it May 23, Melissa rated it liked it Jul 18, Rob rated it really liked it Jan 04, Carly rated it it was ok Jul 08, Katie rated it really liked it Apr 28, Marilyn rated it it was ok Sep 13, He was hired at Oberlin College and worked there for several years before landing a job at Santa Monica College, where he worked for decades.

He may not have made the money he felt he deserved, but who of his Olympic track and field teammates from was able to parlay their gold medal into millions?

Silent Gesture : autobiography of Tommie Smith

This is more about the lack of financial opportunities in track and field and in the s than his gesture, though it is clear the gesture had an Project MUSE promotes the creation and dissemination of essential humanities and social science resources through collaboration with libraries, publishers, and scholars worldwide.

Forged from a partnership between a university press and a library, Project MUSE is a trusted part of the academic and scholarly community it serves. Built on the Johns Hopkins University Campus. The picture of that moment is one of the most enduring sports images of the twentieth century.

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Nearly 40 years later, he details what the gesture symbolized for him and reveals what his life has been since. We learn that, in Smith's mind, the raised glove was not a Black Power salute.


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    • We also learn that he was terrified he'd be shot while on the podium or afterward, a fear that left his life with a lingering undercurrent of paranoia. Along with reflections on the significance of the raised hand, Smith and coauthor Steele deliver a straightforward autobiography: There is an undercurrent of bitterness here, too, as Smith recounts numerous severed relationships, both professional and personal, in which he sees himself as the aggrieved party.

    Still, Smith is an important figure in the history of American sports, and deserves a forum to tell his story his way. Although this book, written with the help of Baltimore Sun columnist Steele, may go down as an important entry in the history of track and field and African American studies, it is not without its problems.

    Silent Gesture: The Autobiography of Tommie Smith by Tommie Smith

    Smith and his San Jose State University classmate John Carlos were the two men who raised their black-gloved fists on the winner's podium at the Summer Olympics in Mexico City Smith and Carlos won first and third place, respectively, in the meter dash. The events and the reasoning that led to this famous "gesture" are discussed, as are its long-lasting effects on Smith's life. The fallout from the publicity, along with the hate speak that has daunted him ever since, has made Smith a bitter man.

    He vents his spleen on many people who passed through his life, including Ronald Reagan, Jim Brown, Jesse Owens, his ex-wife, and his ex-teammate Carlos. He refutes Carlos's description in his Why?: The result is that the reader may forget Smith's many accomplishments in education and coaching because of the anger expressed on almost every page.