The Center for Sport & Social Justice at California State University East Bay presents:
An Evening With Olympians and Civil Rights Activists
John Carlos and Wyomia Tyus
In conversation with award-winning journalist Dave Zirin.
Wednesday February 10, 2016
University Theater
25800 Carlos Bee Blvd. Hayward, CA 94544
7:00-9:00pm
The event is free. Seating is limited.
Parking for this event is $2/Hour & kiosks are available in Lot K (next to the theater)
Event Co-sponsors:
The Academic departments of Kinesiology, History, Sociology, Communication, and the University Libraries. As well as the Diversity and Inclusion Student Center, The College of Education and Allied Studies, Pioneer Athletics, University Extension, The College of Letters, Arts & Social Sciences, Student Life & Leadership, Associated Students, Inc., and Alumni Relations.
On February 10, 2016 The Center for Sport & Social Justice at California State University East Bay will host Olympians John Carlos and Wyomia Tyus, whose actions both on and off the track, leading up to and at the 1968 Mexico City Games, stirred the nation and the world. Dave Zirin, award winning sport journalist for The Nation will moderate the discussion with Carlos and Tyus.
John Carlos and Tommie Smith’s selfless act against racial injustice atop the medal stand in 1968 is one of the more iconic images surrounding racial politics of the period. At great personal risk both athletes stood on the medal stand with raised, gloved fists in the air, in silent protest against racial injustice. They used sport and its increasingly powerful place in society as a site of political resistance in challenging the racial status quo. Their actions, celebrated by some, but scorned by many others brought the racial tensions of the period into sharp relief. Nearly 50 years later, John Carlos, as a guest to the Cal State East Bay campus, will discuss and place his actions into the context of the period leading up to, during, and after the Olympic Games.
Gold medalist Wyomia Tyus, Carlos’s teammate on the 1968 Olympic team, took risks, as well, in dedicating her medals (she won two gold medals at the 1968 Olympics) to Carlos and Smith. Tyus’s achievements and actions both on and off the track have been moved to history’s margins, though they are incredibly compelling and worthy of our attention. Tyus will join Carlos in discussing the place of African American female athletes within the context of the existing sexist and racist norms of a nation and the world in the 1960s.
The event on February 10, 2016 is free and open to all. Seating is limited. For further information and any questions you may have about this event or The Center for Sport & Social Justice please contact the Center’s Director, Rita Liberti, Professor of Kinesiology at Cal State East Bay: Rita.liberti@csueastbay.edu
Or visit the Center’s webpage.
The "Olympics and the Politics of Resistance" event is co-sponsored by the following: the Department of History, University Libraries, the Department of Kinesiology, the Diversity & Inclusion Student Center, the Department of Sociology, the College of Education and Allied Studies, Associated Students Inc., the Department of Communication, Student Life and Leadership, Extension Services, the College of Letters, Arts, and Social Science, and Pioneer Athletics.