Olympic great Tommie Smith tells Paris crowd he still fights for civil rights long after raised fist

BY JEROME PUGMIRE

PARIS (AP) — The audience in Paris stood to applaud Tommie Smith, more than 50 years after he took a stand for civil rights.

A second ovation was even longer, and the 80-year-old Olympic champion seemed overwhelmed with emotion. He lowered his head, clasped it in his hands and wept for several moments.

He had just been asked if he still fights against racism in society.

“Even until this day. I do,” Smith said. “A perpetual stand, forever. As long as there are human beings fighting for the rights of each other.”

Smith was a guest speaker at the Musée de l’Immigration (Museum of Immigration) at the Palais de la Porte Dorée on Tuesday, just over six weeks from the start of the Paris Olympics.

Smith’s raised right fist from the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City still speaks for itself, even in an era in which athletes