Episode 14: Peter Norman

On October 16, 1968 he won a silver medal but his actions did much more than just that. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey, I wanted to hop in and do a quick uh informal intro. I just hit 300 downloads, and that is wild to me since I just started and still kind of don't know what I'm doing. Uh so thank you all so much for listening. 300 ears is a lot of ears. Um, I was thinking if when I hit 500 downloads, I would do a bonus QA episode. Um, I don't know when it would post, but it would be two episodes that week, one regular, one the QA. So if you have any questions for me, you can email me at theyhidwhatpodcast at gmail.com or shoot me over a message on Instagram at They Hid What Pod. All right, on to the good stuff. Hey everybody, I'm Shannon and welcome to the They Hid What Podcast. On this podcast, I explore parts of history that have been kept hidden or swept under the rug. In this week's episode, I will be discussing Peter Norman. Let's get into it. Ruby Bridges being walked into school, Queen playing at Live Aid, the D-Day Kiss. We all know the photo and have a general understanding of what's going on in the image. But have you ever wondered who the other people in the picture are? I found myself asking, who's that guy? When I came across the infamous Black Power Salute photo from the 1968 Summer Olympics. In the image, we see two African American men on the podium with their gloved fists in the air. But who's the guy with the silver medal standing in front of them? That man is Peter Norman, a world record holder for the 200 meter, but his story is not as simple as that. First, we need to understand what the world was like before the 1968 photo was taken. Racism was running rampant in the United States at this time. However, they weren't the only country affected. Racism, as we know, is everywhere. Australia was embroiled in a bitter race war as well. It began in the 1800s. The majority of the white population of Australia was openly racist, and it was believed that the non-white people were less advanced in all ways, especially morally and intellectually. Australia wanted to be seen as a utopia, a working man's paradise, a forward-thinking country, a place that promoted equal rights and opportunities for desirable citizens. Australia saw a big hike in immigration during the 1850s gold rush. Once the gold rush had ended, the miners relocated into the cities and began accepting low-paying jobs. They also sold goods at lower prices, which made them look like competition to native businesses. In 1864, 67 South Sea Islanders were brought into Queensland to work in the cotton and sugar industries. Over the next 40 years, more than 62,000 Pacific Islanders were transported to Australia for manual labor. These people were considered a cheap alternative to paying proper wages to white employees. It's all just so gross. Over time, each Australian colony established its own migration process. And on September 12, 1901, Attorney General Alfred Deaking stated, quote, that end, put in plain and unequivocal terms, means the prohibition of all alien-coloured immigration. And more, it means at the earliest time, by reasonable and just means, the deportation or reduction of the number of aliens now in our mists. The two things go hand in hand and are the necessary complement of a single policy, a policy of securing a white Australia. On December 23, 1901, the Immigration Restriction Act came into law and was designed to limit the non-British migration to Australia. Prejudicial laws were enacted against the indigenous Aboriginal population. These people were denied the right to vote in their own country. Even worse, their children were taken away from them and given to white couples for adoption. These children were considered to be part of the stolen generation, and this practice continued until the 1970s. Immigration officers could make any non-European migrant take a 50-word dictation test in any European language. This made failure easy since the officer could pick what language the person would be tested in. By 1909, the test was administered 1,359 times, and only 52 of those people were granted entry. After World War II, the immigration policy was relaxed, and migrants from other backgrounds were allowed into Australia at regulated numbers. That was Australia, now on to the United States. The 1960s was possibly the peak of racism in the U.S. Dr. Harry Edwards was a scholarship athlete at this time at San Jose State University in California. He had to live with a freshman basketball coach for a month due to the college housing being segregated. Edwards graduated in 1964 and went on to Cornell University to get his PhD. In 1966, Dr. Edwards returned to San Jose State University and saw no change. The campus had few black professors and no black coaches. On-campus housing was scarce for black athletes, and local landlords were reluctant to rent to them. When talking about the campus, Dr. Edwards said, quote, if you were black, you could major in one of three things: physical education, probation, and parole, because blacks will always be going to prison and need some probation officers and social welfare. Those were the three things that blacks majored in. I had to petition to major in sociology, which was in the same department as social work and probation and parole. At this time, there were a few emerging track stars at San Jose State University, all with Olympic potential. Tommy Smith and John Carlos were both slated to compete in the 1968 Olympic Games as sprinters. Both were staunch advocates for civil rights, and the louder they spoke, the more death threats they received. With these possible medal winners on the U.S. team's roster, a boycott was proposed. Tommy Smith, a key person in today's story, said of the boycott, quote, There have been a lot of marches, protests, and sit-ins on the situation of Negro ostracism in the U.S. I don't think this boycott of the Olympics will stop the problem, but I think people will see that we will not sit in on our haunches and take this sort of stuff. Our goal would not be to just improve conditions for ourselves and our teammates, but to improve things for the entire Negro community. Ultimately, the boycott was called off, and it was believed that each athlete should be able to express their beliefs in their own way, not as part of a group. Tommy Smith and John Carlos began thinking about how they could show their fight for human rights at the Olympic Games. Okay, a quick trip to Mexico now. Ten days before the 1968 Olympic Games were to open, students in Mexico City held a protest against President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz's authoritarian rule. These protests were done in hopes that state violence would stop, the police and military would be held accountable for their abuse, political prisoners would be released, and that the country would have free speech. These protesters were violently attacked and over 300 people were killed. None of this was being reported because Mexico City didn't want the visiting Olympic athletes to catch wind of it. The people were angry that not only did hundreds of people die for the exact thing they were protesting against, but that they received no recognition and that the city would spend money on Olympic Games rather than help the people of their own country. To make it worse, fencing was put up along the route from the Olympic village to the stadium to keep the people in the Mexican slums away. The fences were then covered with posters so that those on the buses to the stadium couldn't see what was beyond the fence. Peter was born in Coburg, Victoria, Australia on June 15, 1942. His family was a very devout salvation army family. This evangelical part of the Christian faith believed in God, compassion, and the equality of his fellow man. There was no such thing as discrimination. You treated a person like a person. Peter once said, quote, I couldn't see why someone would dislike or hate someone because they were a different color. Peter grew up in a working class home that was often strapped for cash. Peter was sent to work as an apprentice butcher at 13. Thankfully for him, he liked football, what Americans call soccer, and running. And so he joined the high school track team. He began as a high jumper, but one day the track team was short a man for a relay and asked Peter if he would step in. Peter thought, the more events you competed in, the bigger the trophy you would get at the end of the year. So he said yes. His teammates told him that once you're handed the baton, run as fast as you can to the finish line. There was a sloppy handoff, and by the time it was Peter's lap, his team was in last place. However, Peter did exactly as he was told and ended up winning the race for his team. The next week he saw he was not on the list to compete in the high jump and was devastated. He didn't know why he wasn't on the list. He got a call that day telling him that he was on the list, but that it was for the 100-yard race. This is when Peter Norman became a sprinter. Peter competed in the 1962 and 1966 Commonwealth Games, placing third in the 4x10 yard and fifth in the 4x440 yard. Peter quickly developed a reputation as an incredible sprinter, and at 28 years old, he qualified for the 1968 Olympic team. The Australian Olympic Committee had three rules for him. One, he had to repeat his qualification before the Games. He ended up running even faster. Two, don't finish last in any round. And three, under no circumstances, don't get beaten by a British runner. Peter had never run on an Olympic track before and found that it was made out of different turf than he was used to. Also, Mexico City was at a higher elevation than Peter was used to running in. Both of these things worked in Peter's favor though. The different turf helped Peter to run faster, and the elevation lengthened his stride by about four inches. Still, he made it a point to take the stairs everywhere he went to better acclimate. October 16th, 1968 was the day of the 200-meter race. Peter Norman was set to take the sixth position spot, and in the last 50 meters, he pushed hard and beat American John Carlos for second place. American athlete Tommy Smith won gold. Peter Norman's time of 20.06 seconds still holds the record in Australia. Throughout their time at the Games, John Carlos and Tommy Smith had been wearing black socks to symbolize the poverty many African Americans were facing in the United States. However, now they would have the eyes of the entire world on them as they took the podium to accept their medals. They explained to Peter what they wanted to do on the podium. They were going to go up there in black socks, no shoes, and raised their black gloved fists in the black power salute. Peter said, I'll stand with you. Carlos remembers, quote, I expected to see fear in Norman's eyes, but instead I saw love. Peter has said, quote, I couldn't see why a black man couldn't drink the same water from a water fountain, take the same bus, or go to the same school as a white man. There was a social injustice that I couldn't do anything for from where I was, but I certainly hated it. Smith and Carlos were also going to wear Olympic Project for Human Rights pins, and Peter Norman asked if they had an extra one for him to wear. They didn't have one. But on the way to the podium, they passed the U.S. rowing team. Peter Norman approached Paul Hoffman, a U.S. rower, and seeing the Olympic Project for Human Rights pin asked him if he had an extra one. Hoffman recalls, quote, If a white Australian is going to ask me for an Olympic project for human rights badge, then by God he would have one. I only had one, which was mine. So I took it off and I gave it to him. There was one snag though. John Carlos had left his gloves at Olympic Village. He was still going to do the salute, but knew it would be better if he had his gloves on. Norman suggested they each wear one of Tommy Smith's gloves. Smith said the fists were a cry for freedom and for human rights. We had to be seen because we couldn't be heard. The three took their places on the field, stepped up to the podium in turn, and received their medals. The men turned towards the American flag and the national anthem started to play. Each man bowed their head, and Tommy Smith, wearing his gold medal, raised his right gloved fist. John Carlos, wearing the bronze medal, raised his left gloved fist. Quote, I couldn't see what was happening, Norman had said at the moment. I had known that they had gone through with their plans when a voice in the crowd sang the American anthem, but then faded to nothing. The stadium went quiet. This small act was a huge deal. It was felt by some on the US Olympic team that this act was unnecessary as it took focus away from the sport and the records being set. In the press conference after, reporters kept asking, why would you disrespect the flag? Tommy Smith said, quote, it wasn't about, well, what would motivate you to do something like that? Which is a fair point. And the same point we're still asking ourselves today. Avery Brundage, the chairperson for the International Olympic Committee, demanded that the Olympic board take immediate action, or the whole U.S. track team would be disqualified for the rest of the Games. As a result, Smith and Carlos were suspended from the U.S. Olympic team, forced to leave the Olympic village, and banned from competing in the Olympics for the rest of their lives. Paul Hoffman, the rower who gave Peter Norman the pin to wear, was even accused of conspiracy. Peter had said, it's been said that sharing my silver medal with that incident on the Victory Dais detracted from my performance. On the contrary, I have to confess I was rather proud of it. Upon returning home, Peter Norman was treated as a pariah and an outcast. He competed for Australia in the 1969 Pacific Conference Games and the 1970 Commonwealth Games, but was not selected for the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich. Peter had qualified for the 200-meter race 13 times and the 100-meter race five times. Yet he still wasn't selected to compete. Actually, there were no Australian sprinters in the 1972 Olympic Games. After this snub, Peter stopped running competitively. Tommy Smith had said he paid the price. This was Peter Norman's stand for human rights, not Peter Norman helping Tommy Smith and John Carlos out. He just happened to be a white guy, an Australian white guy, between two black guys in the victory stand, believing in the same thing. Peter played for the West Brunswick Australian Football Club from 1972 to 1977, then began coaching his own team in 1978. After running a charity race in the 1980s, Peter developed gangrene and the recovery process led him down a road of depression. Then came the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. The Australian Olympics Committee asked Peter to condemn the actions of Tommy Smith and John Carlos in exchange for a pardon, and that if he did this, he would have a stable job through the committee and be a part of the organization at the Sydney Games. Peter refused. Peter Norman was the best sprinter that Australia had ever had, yet there was no outcry that he wasn't invited to be a part of the historic event. When the United States team caught wind of this, they flew him out to the Games on their dime, set him up in a hotel, and included him in all of their events. Once he landed and got settled in, the group went to the birthday party of Michael Johnson, a 200 and 400-meter runner. On the way in, they passed Edwin Moses, a former American hurdler, and Dan O'Brien, an American decathlete, who both stopped to introduce themselves to Peter and tell him what big fans they were. Peter was even the guest of honor at Michael's birthday party. Peter told the U.S. coach that he didn't know anyone cared that much about him. During his time at the Sydney Games, Peter didn't say a single bad word about the Australian Olympic Committee, even though they had tried to push him out of their history. In fact, Peter's time from the 1968 Games would have won gold at the Sydney Games. In 2005, a 23-foot-tall statue of Tommy Smith and John Carlos was installed at the San Jose State University campus. At the ceremony, Peter spoke and said that Smith and Carlos gave up their chance at glory with their gesture on the Olympic dais, but that SJSU gave them that glory back. Norman's place on the statue was empty. When asked why, Peter said, quote, I was merely a rock cast into deep steel waters. And the reverberation of the ripples of wind from the center of that pond is still traveling. It's a very big pond. It's the entire world. Peter Norman, Tommy Smith, and John Carlos remained friends from their first meeting at the 1968 Olympic Games until October 3, 2006, when Peter Norman died of a heart attack. Tommy and John attended the funeral and were pallbearers. In Smith's eulogy, he said, quote, Peter means rock. He left a legacy for us to stand on. Stand on that rock. Be proud. During a eulogy at his funeral, the United States Track and Field Federation had declared that October 9th, the day of Peter's funeral, would be known as Peter Norman Day. It took years for Athletics Australia to adopt this day for their own country. In 2008, Peter Norman's nephew Matt Norman released the documentary Salute about the events on the podium at the 1968 Olympics. Many Australians didn't know Peter's story, and there was new outcry after the film was released. In 2012, Australian Parliament approved a motion to formally apologize and rewrite Peter into their history. Now, up until this point, they argued they had done nothing wrong by excluding him from the Sydney Games and not inviting him to participate in the Munich Games. In September 2016, a statue of the three men on the podium was unveiled at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. In 2019, in Melbourne, a bronze statue of Peter Norman was unveiled at Albert Park. When asked, who is Peter Norman? Peter said, quote, Who is Peter Norman? I don't really know. But what is Peter Norman? I'd like to think that apart from the faults, he's an acceptable character in most situations. And I think it would be fair to ask someone else. I guess I'd just like to be thought of as an interesting old guy. That'll do. That's all for this story. Come back next week to see what else has been hidden.