Community Life - Standing proud in history

Inner Westies have rallied to preserve a small tribute to a big piece of social history.

The landmark mural Three Proud People, which has graced the wall of a house facing the train tracks near Macdonaldtown station for as long as anyone can remember, depicts the two athletes – John Carlos and Tommie Smith – raising their fists in the Black Power salute at the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games to protest the treatment of African-Americans. The mural is under threat as Rail Corp announced in June that it would be knocking down the houses in Leamington Ave and Pine St to build a relief line from Eveleigh to Wynyard.

But who’s the third proud person, what’s a protest by Americans in Mexico got to do with inner city Australia, and why should we care if it’s torn down? Well, the third person in the picture is Australian Peter Norman. Norman is now considered to be one of Australia’s greatest runners of all time, and still holds the Australian record for the 200m sprint (20.07s), which he ran on the day of the ‘Black Power Salute’ incident. By winning the silver medal in that race, Norman found himself caught up in the civil rights maelstrom of the late ’60s, during which African-Americans were demanding to be treated as full citizens and white Americans were becoming increasingly fearful of militant groups such as the
Black Panthers.

Norman didn’t join in the clenched fist, thrusting arm salute but did wear the same human rights supporting badge as Carlos and Smith. Carlos and Smith had considered boycotting the Olympics altogether to protest the treatment of their people but instead decided to compete and do the salute if they made it to the winners’ podium.

Carlos later explained, “We wanted the world to know… that people were still walking back and forth in poverty without even the necessary clothes to live. We were trying to wake the country up and wake the world up.”

The salute caused a major controversy worldwide but Norman’s low-key support of Carlos and Smith went largely unnoticed – except, of course, in Australia. Publicly showing support for the civil rights cause, Norman stated, “It was like a pebble in the middle of the pond and the ripples are still travelling.” Those ripples, which played a noble part in combating racism, had largely negative effects for all three of those involved in the podium protest. Like Carlos and Smith,
Norman found himself shunned in the athletics world and never again competed in the Olympics.

The Three Proud People remains the sole testament to Peter Norman’s actions in Australia, apart from the 2008 film Salute, made by Norman’s film director nephew Matt Norman, which explored the after effects of the salute on the lives of all of those involved in it.

When told of the threat to ‘Three Proud People’ Matt promised, “If they decide to knock it down I’m coming to Sydney and taking the whole wall back with me to Melbourne.”

Thankfully, The City of Sydney Council has responded to the protests and has promised to dedicate itself to the protection of the mural, with hopes now raised it will be placed on the local heritage list. We can only hope that Norman,
Carlos and Smith will now continue to stand proud for many decades to come.

Phoebe Moloney