10/14/2011: Book Review: The John Carlos Story by John Carlos - Chicago Tribune
Originally, the Olympic Project for Human Rights was supposed to hold a large boycott, but after a massacre of students by the state military in Mexico City’s Tlatelolco Square and the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and former presidential candidate Robert Kennedy, people were too terrified to speak up. But judging from Carlos’ entire childhood and teenage years, in which he never succumbed to racist attitudes or injustice, he didn’t seem able to wait for things he wanted done pronto. Carlos was a curious kid who loved to excel at sports, but when his 62-year-old veteran father explained to his 12-year-old son that he’d never be able to make it as an Olympic swimmer because of the color of his skin, Carlos set off on a mission to defy the odds. His father told him he didn’t have a public pool to practice in and Carlos decided he’d go into the Golden Gloves. His mother refused to let her boy get bruised up so he stopped boxing and began looking for another way to make it to the Olympics.
