Black Power Salute

How a Photograph Captured a Political Protest

By: Danielle Smith-Llera

Narrated by: Anonymous

Two American athletes made history at the 1968 Summer Olympics, but not on the track. They staged a silent protest against racial injustice. Tommie Smith and John Carlos, gold and bronze medalists in the 200-meter sprint, stood with heads bowed and black-gloved fists raised as the national anthem played during the medal ceremony. The Australian silver medalist wore a human rights badge in support. All three would pay a heavy price for their activism. A Life magazine photograph seen by millions would ensure that the silent protest was remembered, and eventually admired, as a symbol of the battle for equality and civil rights.

©2020 Danielle Smith-Llera (P)2017 Capstone Publishers, Inc.

Strong story marred by digitized narration

“Anonymous” is disingenuous, as the reader is no mystery—there isn’t one. It’s an app digitally generating audio from a written account. Problem is, that output on the whole is poor. The audio isn’t censored, as theorized above; rather, there are bizarre breaks for voice cutouts, and, worse, the story is hacked apart while narration stops to cite photos originally embedded in the text. While I’m willing to accept lowered quality to some extent for included-with-paid-membership products, this model for producing content is a nonstarter.

Authentic Courage

This work offers an important account of black power as practiced by Smith and Carlos.

a little off

It seems like this audio book was edited or censored. There are moments when the narration pauses and then picks up in a different spot, it really takes away from the experience.