Victory. Stand!: Raising My Fist for Justice by Tommie Smith

Abstract

Reviewed by: Victory. Stand!: Raising My Fist for Justice by Tommie Smith Wesley Jacques Smith, Tommie Victory. Stand!: Raising My Fist for Justice; written by Tommie Smith and Derrick Barnes; illus. by Dawud Anyabwile. Norton Young Readers, 2022 [208p] Trade ed. ISBN 9781324003908 $22.95 Paper ed. ISBN 9781324052159 $17.95 Reviewed from digital galleys R Gr. 8-12 Despite his world record-breaking run at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, the world-changing image of Tommie Smith on the victory stand with fist raised is undoubtedly his most iconic performance. Smith and fellow runner John Carlos, shoeless and wearing black leather gloves, received their gold and bronze medals, respectively, while not only representing the U.S. as athletes but protesting the inequitable circumstances of Black life back home. It remains a controversial act on a uniquely global stage, and the context offered by Smith's biography—graphic both in the form of panels and speech bubbles as well as illustrations of Black men hung from trees with crosses ablaze in the background—offers an intimate perspective on Civil Rights era activism. The seventh of twelve siblings, Smith and his family migrated from Acworth, Texas, to the Central Valley of California when the viability of sharecropping and the terrors of the Jim Crow South forced their hand, an experience shared by so many other Black families of the time. Smith, Barnes, and Anyabwile's artful collaboration translates the consistently impressive perseverance of Smith's real life into grounded and thoughtful motivation for readers, especially as the story continues past the iconic moment of fists raised triumphantly in protest into an aftermath of unemployment, disappointments, divorces, and better-late-than-never recognition. Copyright © 2022 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois