Victory. Stand!: Raising My Fist for Justice

In Tommie’s youth, in facing poverty and oppression within a racist society, he finds strength and solace in his family. Throughout the novel, no matter how far he gets his from his family, whether it’s just a short ride away to San Jose State or across the world, Tommie thinks of his family often. These recurring references make family an important motif that interacts with the broader sense of community that Tommie begins to feel as he becomes as activist. His family provides inspiration and grounds him in his roots. The values present in Tommie’s family life also recur throughout the novel via Tommie’s commitment to working hard, to his Christian faith, and to taking advantage of every opportunity life offers him.

The role that family will play in the novel is established early on. The novel opens with an image of a young Tommie and then quickly cuts to an entire page of his family members, including the names of each of his 12 siblings. He emphasizes the importance of family to enduring hardship: “We were poor—but together we were plenty” (9). He deeply respects the work that his parents do to care for their dozen children. This is evident in how he describes his mother as “ach[ing] and pained in silence […] She was so strong. So kind. So appreciated and loved dearly” (11). His father is someone he sees as full of “stamina and endurance” (14). These role models reflect Tommie’s own willingness to work through the pain he experiences when he pulls a muscle in the Olympics in 1968 and even his track training in general. Just as they worked hard, he will work hard. Moreover, their endurance is symbolic of the endurance that many Black Americans had as they dealt with harsh conditions and unfair treatment. For Tommie, so much of his desire for the world to be better comes from understanding that members of his family were enslaved and then, when they were freed, became sharecroppers still laboring on someone else’s land.

Tommie’s love for his family is also exemplified in his pride at having built on their survival and wisdom. In his adulthood, he reflects on how he is an extension of his family: With his family behind him, he has made it “[f]rom the cotton fields of Texas and California…to an Olympic field in Mexico…and a gold medal with a green ribbon around [his] neck” (175). He never forgets where he comes from, and he is both humbled by the opportunities that he has made for himself and proud to be able to represent his family in seizing those opportunities. He recalls often his promise to his father that he would always come in first, and Tommie does, in the biggest competition in the world. Even afterward, Tommie continues to emphasize the importance of family in his life, pointing to when his son comes to live with him and when he marries his second wife, who “brought [him] peace” (193).