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BrotherTommie,Olympic Track Star, IsHistoryPersonifiedTommie Smith: . . just isn't my bag.CINCINNATI - (NEA) -Tommie Smith. 24, has made headlines in many papers in many languages for his world record-breaking track feats and for his gesture of raising a black-gloved fist on the victory stand at the Olympic Games.Recently, a two-paragraph story in the local paper mentioned that Tommie Smith had flown here from San Jose, Calif., where he is a college senior majoring in sociology.He was to speak that night at the Mt. Zion Baptist Church, featured guest of the Afro-American History Week program.Mt. Zion Baptist Church is a small, modest building in a auiet neighborhood inhabited mostly by blacks.The Rev. Otis Moss. Jr., thin, trim with a wisp of a mustache, once second-in-command to Martin Luther King in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, is pastor of the church In deep resonance, he welcomed the guests who filled the pewsThe church choir, all women and mostly youthful, in smart white blouses, full-voiced and tremolo, organ background, went into the Battle Hymn of the Republic.When they reached . . . as lie died to make men holy, let us die to make men free . . Tommie Smith appeared from behind a curtain. If It was intended to be dramatic, it was.The small paper program issued at the door noted that Brother Tommie Smith. Olympic Track Star. Is History Personified. and the audience stirred when Smith appeared.Immediately, one noticedBy IRA BERKOW Newspaper Enterprise Assn.his t u r q u 01 s e-blue sun glasses. He wore a tasteful brown glen-plaid suit with yellow shirt and matching striped tie. Quite Madison Avenue, except for his sunglasses, love beads and Fu Manchu whiskersSmith took a seat behind the lectern There were more songs, including Swing Ixw. Sweet Chariot, then the Rev. Moss rose to appeal for an offering. The pastor’s heavy demeanor became light.We need your help. he told the assembly, to carry on the greatness of this program. Take out the money that you’ve been saving and that your husband or wife does not know about. And you have it—isn’t that right. Brother Ted? A few rows back Brother Ted laughed into his beard. A-men. Reverend.All you people. continued the pastor, think you’re saving money by collecting those stamps. But you’re paying double and licking yourselves to death. Knowing laughter. But we’re learning. Every man here over 3u still has a small stocking cap in his drawer. Remember when you combed and combed and caked and caked and tied the stocking cap over your head?We’d go to the dentist and say. ‘Give me a gold tooth.’ And he’d say. You don’t have a cavity in your head ’ And you’d say. Then take out that front one.’ Rollicking laughter, now.And. said the Rev. Moss, you’d always smile wide on that side.”He had to stop, the laughter was so loud.But we’re moving ahead now and showing the world we have no fear Next, a grade-school girl recited a poem she had presumably written It was entitled. I Am Somebody. And went through a list of 30 or so famous blacks, from Douglass to DuBois, from Dunbar to Robeson, from Carver to Muhammad All to Sidney Poitier to Tommie Smith Even llncle Tom C’a great Christian) was named.Now Tommie Smith rose. He said he had given many speeches, but none from theCulpit. This just isn’t my iig, he said. And his eyes, which had been darting while he sat. softened. So did the audience.Then he read passages from the Declaration of Independence and said he still believed it. that all men are created equal and so forth. He also said he did not hate white men individually, but what they stood for collectively in history: Slaveowners told our ancestors that the blacker the skin, the greater the curse.He also told this black audience that black power, in essence, did not mean black dominance It meant that blacks should have a decisive say in their destiny.Yes.” he said I am proud to be an American. I am proud to be a black American. That's why my hand was up in Mexico City.The program ended with a bouncy gospel which began. I’m going to do when the spirit says do I’m going to speak when the spirit says speak . . .iNrmtpaptf tnlriprn, Attn )
Newspaper Details
Lompoc Record
Lompoc, California, US
Thu, Mar 27, 1969
Page 5
Full Page
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