Victory. Stand!: Raising My Fist for Justice

Nonfiction | Graphic Memoir | YA | Published in 2022

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Prologue-Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Key Figures

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Themes

The Struggle for Equal Rights and Treatment of Black Activists

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes incidents of racial discrimination and violence present in the source text.

Much of Tommie Smith’s legacy has to do with the way that he was blacklisted by the International Olympic Committee after he and John Carlos raised their fists in 1968. Prior to this moment, Tommie is acutely aware that this action will have consequences, and he emphasizes this awareness and his related anxiety from the start of his memoir: “If we did what we had planned, there was no telling what the backlash would be” (4). The graphic memoir sets up the tension between not only the struggle for equal rights in the mid-20th century but also the costs of being an activist, which, as Tommie engages more and more with protests, become real threats to his safety, livelihood, and ability to care for his family.

While this memoir focuses on Tommie and his story, it also includes moments and stories that give readers not only historical context but also a sense of what informed his decisions and perspective. Stories like that of John Lewis or the three young men killed because they were helping African Americans register to vote in Mississippi illustrate how activists were treated by the majority of society, despite the fact that they were working for justice. The murder of many activists made it clear to Tommie that his life was often on the line if someone saw him as working outside the accepted social order. A key moment comes when Tommie joins San Jose State students in responding to the violence against John Lewis and other activists marching from Selma. Tommie makes it apparent that counter-protesters and many white people care little about the violence enacted on African Americans, thinking, “At first I was frightened, then confused. What had we done to them? Hadn’t they watched how those church folks were brutally beaten by those policemen in Alabama just six days prior?” (132). Tommie sees a dissonance here between his understanding of police brutality and that of those who were willing to ignore it. Over time, he comes to realize that “[m]aybe they saw [Black people] as troublemakers for just simply being…just simply being alive” (132). This recognition is important because it gets to the heart of the racism at work in this context, that is, the belief among white people that Black Americans are lesser than them.

As a result of racism, many African Americans during the long Black freedom struggle were hesitant to get involved, lest their lives become at risk. Tommie, in this context, goes from passively watching as other Black activists who are on the front lines get beaten or killed to being some on the frontlines himself, putting his career and life on the line for what he believes is right. He watches Harry Edwards’s life be threatened again and again. Yet, Tommie perseveres, choosing at the 1968 Olympics to raise his fist despite the cost it will have. He and John Carlos meticulously consider their actions, imbuing great symbolism in their choice to remove their shoes, wear items around their necks, and don a black glove. Tommie finds strength in his history, holding his first “up like a torch, defiant” (176). Despite all of the racism and violence enacted on African Americans, Tommie finds strength in their perseverance and in his family.

Using Sports to Persevere

Throughout this novel, sports evolve from a hobby that Tommie enjoys to a pathway to a better life for himself and a means by which he can advocate for others. As a youth, Tommie views running as his way to escape working in the field like his father and many other members of his family. It’s clear from the beginning that he has long enjoyed racing with his sister, even in Texas. As he grows up, though, the sport becomes a way for him to persist in a hostile society, fostering inner strength and empowerment.

Tommie’s racing ability comes from his family, and that ability encompasses both physical and mental resilience. Tommie spends days running while in Texas and does hard work in fields. He recounts later how his father’s strength provides inspiration: His father’s “stamina and endurance were amazing, and something [Tommie] drew from later on in [his] life when [he] needed a push, when it felt like [he] just couldn’t go on” (14). Seeing his family’s perseverance in the long hours working as sharecroppers drives him in school, as Tommie is no stranger to putting in great effort in order to provide for his family. For him, hard work is more than just a physical labor; it is a mental and emotional one as well. In his sport, as in life, he emulates the example set by his family and those around them.

Additionally, Tommie views racing as a way of building on and escaping from the life he saw his family leading in both an economic and social sense. Practically, it was a means to get a scholarship and go to college. However, emotionally, he describes a sense of liberation: “[W]hen I ran, I was away from those fields. I felt free. It was like discovering a set of wings” (81). Racing is something that Tommie truly enjoys, and he knows that he’s the best at it, “a force to be reckoned with” (121). Several illustrated scenes of him in the novel depict him as the sole focus, emphasizing his speed and aptitude to the reader; such scenes are especially present at the start of the race in Mexico City and when he sets his first world record. After the latter of these races, Tommie also comes to realize that he can use his athleticism as a way to advocate and help others to persevere in the fight for equality. His realization that his sport provides a platform peaks when he stands atop the podium and raises his fist. In this moment, his athletic greatness becomes part of his voice, which he uses to stand in solidarity with the Black Americans who came before him and with those still engaged in the fight for equal rights.

Even though Tommie does not race after this point, he still uses sports as a means to persevere in the later years of his life, becoming a coach. These jobs give him financial stability, and while he misses running, he is able to prove that he is an exception to his and his family’s earlier view of the limitations of sports to lead to change: “There was not a lot of proof that a Black man could take care of his family or make a difference in the world by just catching a football, shooting a ball through a hoop or running fast” (81). Tommie is able to accomplish both of those things, and time comes to show that his persistence and perseverance should have been honored and respected, leading to his much-belated induction into the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Hall of Fame.

Education as Providing Access to Opportunity

Much as sports act as a mechanism for Tommie to support perseverance, formal education serves as a pathway for him to greater opportunities. Tommie’s narrative constantly returns to scenes of him studying or explaining how he keeps making progress toward his degree. The repetition of these actions illustrates how Tommie also came to share his father’s appreciation of education.

Tommie’s father serves the narrative as not only a positive driving force for his son but also a condemnation of society’s treatment of Black Americans. The older man is keenly aware that one of society’s means of oppressing him, which includes ensuring he stays impoverished, is denying him access to education: “If I’d had the opportunity that you have, I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing now—I’d be doing much better” (51). His emphasis on the value of education—specifically, formal education from an institution that the white majority will respect—stems from that awareness. Accordingly, Tommie’s father is suspicious of anything that might hamper his children’s success in earning a college degree, including sports. While his father allows Tommie to join a variety of sports teams in middle and high school, he warns him that Tommie can only be the best and that finishing second would mean that he would have to quit; consistently finishing first, notably, is a large part of what provides Tommie access to higher education.

Tommie, for his part, recognizes early on his father’s wish that his children find more opportunity through education, but it’s only through his awakening social conscience that he connects his father’s passion for education to the ways in which US society has limited Black people’s opportunities. Early in the novel, Tommie sees his father make sacrifices so that his children can have an education. When they move to California, obeying the truancy laws is a challenge for Tommie’s father, as sending his children to school means that there are fewer hands to help on the fields during the day. Nonetheless, his father eagerly accepts the burden of harder work for the adults. At this point, though, Tommie is only just beginning to grasp the full potential of education, which could lead to better financial stability. Attending integrated schools in California is frightening. Leaving for San Jose State is even more so. Yet, Tommie knows that “if [he] did what [he] came to do, [he] would never have to work in another field again” (107).

However, as Tommie studies, he also starts to take part in the Civil Rights Movement, his study of history shaping his burgeoning efforts to find his own place in history. In this process, education becomes about more than just economic opportunities—it also provides opportunities to take part in one’s society, helping citizens to develop a voice. For Tommie, key to education’s ability to provide comprehensive socioeconomic opportunities is the fact that his studies connect him to the history of Black Americans. As he gains this deep understanding, he is able to appreciate education in the light that his father intuitively appreciated it: “[A]ll their parents and grandparents had known, was work. They understood that the only way that Black folks would avoid the seemingly inescapable cotton fields […] was to receive even just a portion of the education that white children were afforded” (50).