Famed athlete-activist Tommie Smith and vocal journalist Jemele Hill will appear in a free event at the Moss Arts Center Thursday to wrap up two weeks of events surrounding Martin Luther King Jr. Day at Virginia Tech.
Smith and Hill, a former ESPN personality, will talk with Ellington Graves, director of Africana Studies in Virginia Tech’s sociology department. The trio will have “a moderated conversation” on the intersection of race and sports, organizers said. The event will be in the Anne and Ellen Fife Theatre at 7 p.m. Thursday.
In interviews this week, the featured speakers said they’re looking forward to lively conversation that will be both informative and entertaining. The pair has spoken together in the past on similar topics in public forums, they said.
“He’s very gregarious and warm,” Hill said of Smith, a gold medalist sprinter who famously raised a gloved fist during the national anthem at his medal ceremony in 1968. He’s always willing to share what happened after that famous moment, she said. “He went through a lot of hardship. His recall is amazing and stunning.”
People are also reading…
Hill, now a staff writer for The Atlantic, had a very public exit from ESPN last year following criticism of President Donald Trump that included tweeting out that Trump is “a white supremacist,” in 2017.
She has said that she didn’t think the statement was controversial telling ESPN personality Dan Le Batard last year “I thought I was saying water is wet,” in his South Beach Sessions podcast.
But Hill said she recognized that once the tweet went viral she was likely in hot water.
With Smith and Graves she hopes to talk about Smith’s experiences with being outspoken. As an athlete protesting racism in 1968, Smith faced backlash in the United States after raising his fist at the Mexico City Olympics.
Athletes today, though, have a tool Smith acknowledges he was missing after raising his fist in 1968 — “the dollar bill,” he said.
Hill said she’s been impressed with the work black athletes are doing in their communities. That includes work from basketball star Lebron James, who helped fund a school in Akron, Ohio, last fall.
Charitable work is great, but she also hopes players don’t stop speaking out against injustice.
Colin Kaepernick, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback, is the prime example for young athletes who want to make a difference, she said.
His act of kneeling in protest toward police violence against black men in America is all important, she said. Kaepernick hasn’t appeared on an NFL roster since he began his protest, but it’s sparked conversation and brought ample awareness to the issue, Hill said.
“There’s still great power in voice,” Hill said. “I don’t want them to use money as a crutch.”
Smith said he takes great pride in Kaepernick’s protest. It brings him back to 1968. How the young quarterback has been treated is a reminder of how he was treated. But he hopes that doesn’t mean folks will stop speaking out, he said.
“There needs to be a continuation of what’s been happening over the last two years,” Smith said.
As for Thursday’s talk, the speakers will likely get into these kinds of issues, which Hill said she plans to focus on while writing at The Atlantic in the coming years.
Kimberly Williams, director of Tech’s Black Cultural Center, chaired the committee that set up the two weeks’ worth of events and helped bring the pair to Blacksburg. She said she’s excited for the event that’s been in the works for about a year.
“The excitement and support we’ve already received from the public has been great,” she said.
Smith said he’s looking forward to lively discussion. He anticipates the audience will get a lot from the event but he plans to soak in some thoughtful information as well.
“It’s going to be interesting,” he said.