On the anniversary of John Carlos and Tommie Smith's Black Power salute at the 1968 Olympics, LIFE.com remembers with a classic photo.

At Life he photographed the Korean War, Vietnam, Woodstock, Africa, Kennedy in Berlin and Nixon in China, and the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City (it's his iconic photo of Americans Tommie Smith and John ...

On Oct. 16, 1968, American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their fists at the Summer Olympics in Mexico City — a photo that still reverberates five decades later.

Olympic medal winners made a black power salute in Mexico City on Oct. 16, 1968, and it became one of the most influential protest images of all time. We catch up with U.S. sprinters Tommie Smith ...

Olympian John Carlos talks Black Power salute during ’68 Olympics ... black-gloved fist to symbolize African American poverty in the United States and other injustices faced by Blacks at the time.

On Oct. 16, 1968, the world saw the televised images and photographs of American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos standing on the victor’s podium at the 1968 Summer Olympic Games in Mexico ...

John Carlos sits on the statue commemorating him, Tommie Smith and Peter Norman during the 1968 Summer Olympics. (David Betancourt/The Washington Post) ...

It all started at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. That’s when U.S. track and field Olympian John Carlos won the bronze ...

Carlos will be in Baltimore to accept another accolade, the American Visionary Art Museum’s Grand Visionary Award.