I’m Australian (actually Anglo-Italian by birth), I was fortunate to read Riccardo’s piece and was riveted from beginning to end. I myself had not known the story of Peter Norman; I don’t recall anyone ever discussing it. So Riccardo has done a great service to me, personally. I had no time to translate it into English, but you have done such a sensitive, masterly job of it than any attempt of mine would have been lame. So I am deeply grateful to you as well, Alexa Combs Dieffenbach. Ti ringrazio di cuore.

Amazing story about standing up for what is right — even if your own government or country doesn’t support you. Incredible man. #rebelwithacause

“The white man is perhaps the biggest hero”? Are you taking the p**s? Is that meant to be a joke?

“Peter Norman is absent from this statue. His absence from the podium step seems an epitaph of a hero that no one ever noticed. A forgotten athlete, deleted from history, even in Australia, his own country.”

This is really Sad. He should be remembered too.

this was an interesting article- but i have to say, this line “Thanks to an old article by Gianni Mura, today I discovered the truth: that white man in the photo is, perhaps, the biggest hero of that night in 1968.” I get your sentiment, but it’s a bit strange to call the relatively unknown white guy who empathises with the people of colour the biggest hero in a picture which is specifically about the people themselves showing solidarity in a time of struggle. It reads like White-Saviour. There is a reason his arm isn’t up- he knew, in that moment it wasn’t about him. He suffered for it and I value his efforts. I’m glad and interested to learn about him and my complaint may seem pedantic or unnecessary, but calling him the biggest hero kind of defeats the point.

Great story of a true hero. Thanks.

Put the man on the statue and tell people this story. It’s as simple as that.

What an amazing story and thanks for bringing it to everyone’s attention.

One thing though, as an Englishman, I’m surprised you thought of him as ‘just a simpering Englishman’ whatever you think of Englishmen, he is clearly wearing the Australian kit.

Great article.
However, I think it mischaracterises Australia in 1968.
In 1967, 90.77% of (white) Australians voted for “Act to alter the Constitution so as to omit certain words relating to the People of the Aboriginal Race in any State and so that Aboriginals are to be counted in reckoning the Population'” which effectively ended the treatment of Aboriginal people as inferior by Government.
What didn’t change was certain bastions of conservatism, and I doubt that the Olympic Committee of many countries would be held up as a shining light for freedom.
Nevertheless, he was a great figure, and the two black athletes also acted with a dignity and inclusiveness that shows the Olympic committees of both countries for what they were (and perhaps still are).
It just goes to show, when you get up the nose of those in authority, you are in for a bumpy ride.

Thank u so much for sharing the knowledge with us .. i really didn’t know that

Awesome article Alexa! Great story of true human unity and common struggle.

So tired of the divisive rhetoric that is hamstringing the progressive social justice movement today.

Excellent piece.

Thank you, and thanks to all of these brave men.

Great article

Informative read. In honor of his participation, perhaps, one day, Peter Norman will be added to that empty space on the sculpture.

This is a very good article. It is well written and tells a marvelous story. Unfortunately, when I read the words, “having ran” I was disappointed. The past participle of the verb “run” is also “run.” So the proper phrase is “having run.”

Yes Jetjag, you’re right. We intended “each”. We’ve corrected the word. Thank you.

I profoundly disagree. His companions on the podium went on to work in tandem with others in the emerging Civil Rights campaigns. He had to deal with his struggles alone, and yet stayed true to his values all along the way, because it “wasnt about him”. I”m sorry you cant see the heroic in such a gesture.

I’ve read elsewhere that this space is intended for others to be able to stand there. While the statue may not represent the man, it presents space for the eternal gesture he committed to that day. If we know the history of that moment, instead of staring at the man, cast in bronze, we can contemplate the immortal gesture of solidarity that the man committed that day, and stand in his place.

“that white man in the photo is, perhaps, the biggest hero of that night in 1968.”
Omg… What a not surprinsing thing for a white person to say about black history…

Has absolutely nothing to do with the story.

Beautifully written piece.

All three of those men ran an amazing race. What a great video.

I agree with the others commenting here; calling the white guy “perhaps the biggest hero” is pretty messed up in this context. Credit where due: Peter Norman acted with tremendous integrity and solidarity, and we owe him great respect. But the story shouldn’t be about him.

I agree he was definitely a hero, I wouldn’t say that he was the biggest hero but rather an equal.

So much disinformation in one article.

Norman wasn’t even punished for the incident and went on to work in sports administration. From his eulogy in The Guardian:

” But the Australian team’s chef de mission, Julius “Judy” Patching, resisted calls from the country’s conservative media for Norman to be punished, telling the athlete in private, “They’re screaming out for your blood, so consider yourself severely reprimanded. Now, you got any tickets for the hockey today?” Patching seemed mystified as to what the fuss was about, though he did warn the athlete to be careful.”

“After recovering, he worked for the Melbourne department of sport and recreation. He was active in athletics administration, Olympic fundraising and the organisation of major events like the 2000 Sydney Olympics.”

“At a reception before the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games, Australian runner John Steffenson, who is black, wore a tee-shirt emblazoned with the 1968 photo, telling the press Norman was his boyhood hero. Norman later presented Steffenson with an autographed copy of the picture, and Steffenson won the 400m Commonwealth gold medal.”

Also, the level of discrimination in Australia wasn’t even remotely close to the extreme racism of Segregation-era America, let alone Apartheid South Africa.

Why ruin a perfectly good story with these kind of bare-faced lies?

Actually, many people suffered “alone” during this particular time in history- many communities battled for their right to be seen & respected. Yes, Norman made a great, incredible move by standing in solidarity, but are you able to understand the greater purpose behind the gestures and movement of ALL THREE athletes at that time? Before we pass the hero crown off to Norman for doing what’s right, maybe you should take some time to really learn & understand the significance of this moment in history.

The aboriginals in America were treated just as badly and there has been no apology. If you were ever to teach in a Metro school you could see what bullies the culture has created. Unfortunately a lot of it is fueled by hatred not a desire for fairness.

I don’t know why some are offended that Norman is being called a ‘hero’ in this article. Do you feel like calling him a hero takes away the struggle and the work black people have put into their cause? Are we that fragile and insecure?

Smith and Carlos celebrated his life and honored his death. The actual 2 people who were there with him at the dais see him as a hero. We should too. It doesn’t make us less in any way.

Yes. It’s a brilliant concept.

I don’t agree with the statement that “whites were simply aghast ..” I was 13 in 1968 and I was horrified about what was going on in the US with segregation. The sad part is how far removed we were from it in Australia. At the same time many of us were feeling empathy for African Americans by following assassinations in the news, and rushing to see Sidney Poitier movies, many of us who lived in the cities were largely kept in the dark about what was happening to the Aborigines. Most of us had never met an Aborigine. We were totally colonized by the sanitized version of history being taught here back in those days. I was taught in primary school that Aborigines were savages running naked in the Australian desert somewhere. We were taught that Britain was the “mother country” and our national anthem was “God Save the Queen”. We understood the struggle in America because it was always in the news but we talked about it all being “over there”. We might have been “engaged in our own segregation” but it was largely by stealth and our geographic isolation from the rest of the world. We saw the Vietnam War on black and white TV and it was never discussed in our classrooms at the time. We understood the issues. In man ways, the Peter Normans of Australia taught many of us how to stand up for what we believed instead of conforming to our own ignorance. Every country still has its rednecks. Please don’t put every white person in that category.

Yes, the ‘apartheid’ word left me aghast in relation to Australia, but in reality we did have apartheid but it was hidden in government policies of segregation. Apartheid is a word that entered the English lexicon via South Africa. It is usually mostly associated with South Africa; however, we had South Africans working here in government roles from the early 20th Century. The notorious Mr AO Neville (Mr Devil) portrayed by British actor, Kenneth Brannagh, in the film “Rabbit Proof Fence” was a real person who was imported from South Africa in the 1930s to be “Chief Protector of Aborigines”. We did have apartheid but most of us didn’t know it as that because if it was mentioned at all it was called “segregation”.

How about just adding one of those plaques alongside the sculpture to explain the artist’s concept, which invites people of all nations who visit there to stand with Peter?

Thanks for letting us know. In fact in the original Italian version it was included. Unfortunately it escaped our notice. Thank you again.

Thanks for sharing this story – it’s really powerful. But if you don’t
mind me asking – why the need to make Norman “the biggest hero”? The
whole article reads as though Norman’s experience was somehow more
valid, more heroic, more real, than Smith and Carlos’ experiences. What
Norman did was brave and powerful and he deserves to be celebrated. But
why make him out as heroic white saviour when what he himself was doing
was standing in *solidarity* with a bigger struggle? Not leading it,
just standing alongside it because he believed that was the only right
thing to do.

Sure, I understand that – sadly – for many white
readers Norman’s story might be easier to identify with than those of
Smith or Carlos, and that gives this story power to reach white readers
and shake us. That’s a great reason to tell it – but why not tell it in a
way that doesn’t privilege white protagonists yet again, but instead
reminds us just where we ought to place our words and deeds and lives at
stake along with those who have less choice about whether or not to
stand and fight?

Norman wanted the space left free for others. The absence does not reveal cruel reality – it shows wonderful humility

I did not mean to lump all white people into a category, however Australia is a white country, and it is they who ostracised him..

“I even thought that that guy – who seemed to be just a simpering Englishman”
Ignore for a moment the racist slur; you write off an Olympic silver medalist in terms you find to be satisfactorily derogatory?
“GRIOT – Sharing. Inspiring. Spreading culture” Really??

Pathetic.

I have one rule, when I publish a piece: let it go, never answer to the comments, everyone can have its own idea about what I wrote. But my article about Peter Norman had an enormous, incredible number of sharin’worldwide, so I think it’s right for me to crearly explain two things for which some readers criticized me.

Some of them said I’m tryn’ to “whitewash” the story. No, they’re wrong, this wasn’t absolutely my intention and I think some comments explain how still long is this road. When I say that FOR ME Peter Norman is the
hero of this story, I’m not looking at the color of his skin: he could be white, black, yellow or a man from the moon, it’s not the real Matter. My piece, this story, it’s about choices.

Norman found himself in this historical moment and in just few seconds he made a choice and he had the strongness to repeate the same choice all through the years, even if he was silently sufferin’ alone and he could
retreat to salve himself.

If you listen to Carlos and Smith public speeches I think you can clearly understand that the real struggle started after that race and that night. And you can listen how grateful they are to this man. Tommie Smith and John Carlos made an enormous thing, they changed the story and finally the whole world recognized their role.

Norman decided in just one moment, and his decision changed and, in some way, destroyed his life.

The most impressive think in this story, for me, it’s not about that night but about the silent strengthness he had to never make one step down. My piece is not about who was “more heroic”.

This is not a competition beetween Smith, Carlos and Norman. They ran one against other only in that night of 1968, after they ran together.

My piece is not about black or white, it’s about humanity and strongess and loyalty. And they have no color.

THE SECOND THING
Some people from England wrote me, angry because I used the expression “simpering englishmen”. Yes, I used it! I used to explain another kind of stereotiph, a stupid semplification even I was doin’, when I was younger and I looked at that photo, keepin’ my eyes to those beautiful, strong black men and don’t lookin’ at the white man.

My eyes, like the eyes of all the world, they were taken by those fist up in the air and I didn’t even notice the color of the uniform, green, insted of the white english uniform. That expression tried to explain how wrong we all can be just takin’ a look at a photo and judge without think.

May be in the Italian version my ironic tone was more clear. Sorry for my bad English.

Best regards to all of you.

And you are not I am guessing.

What does it mater if Mike is white or not? The point is that he stood up for something he didn’t even have to stand up for, and by no means was his fight. But he realized it was wrong, and stood up against it. I’m so sick of people being defined by their color. You can be sky blue pink with purple polka dots, if you are a respectable human being, you should be treated as such.

Did you read the article? The world is not confined to our United States borders.

The writer clearly has no idea of what Australia was like in 1968, but as an Italian who has most likely never been here, he may be excused. In contrast to yourself!

Exactly

Excellent article about a courageous stand against racism. What a shame the author had to spoil it with a racist/homophobic comment about how he thought Norman was just “a simpering Englishman”.

Fascinating article. Not sure the line about assuming Norman was just a ‘simpering Englishman’ is quite in the peace, love and anti-prejudice spirit so well exemplified by this unsung hero.

why wasn’t it his fight??? is fight against racism not fight of all of us? or do you only fight oppression if it hurts you but if it benefits you – you embrace it.

“the biggest hero of the night”?