WASHINGTON — President Obama paid tribute to the "Black Power" protesters at the 1968 Olympics Thursday during a White House ceremony to honor the 2016 Olympic team.
Among the hundreds of current and former athletes on hand for the ceremony were Tommie Smith and John Carlos, the track and field athletes whose raised-fist protest became an iconic image of the Civil Rights movement.
"Their powerful silent protest of the 1968 games was controversial, but it woke folks up, and it created a greater opportunity for those that followed," Obama said.
The White House extended the invitation at the time of a national debate over San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, whose decision to take a knee during the playing of the National Anthem has sparked a heated debate over the Black Lives Matter movement.