The Associated Press reports Norton Young Readers will publish “Victory. Stand! Raising My Fist for Justice,” a graphic biography of Tommie Smith, the American athlete who (along with John Carlos) made the Black Power salute at the 1968 Summer Olympics.
Smith, 77, will co-write the book with children’s author Derrick Barnes, and it will be rendered by artist Dawud Anyabwile. “Young readers will find a story of bravery, activism, and a cry for freedom from one of the most iconic figures in American sports,” Norton said of the book, which will be published on September 27. Further details provided by Amazon state the book will be a black-and-white hardcover release aimed at readers aged 13-18, and that it will retail at 208 pages for $19.95.
“Victory. Stand!” will chronicle Tommie Smith’s life from his upbringing in rural Texas, to his gold medal victory and podium protest in Mexico City, 1968. Smith, then aged 24, had just won the 200-meter sprint finals in 19.83 seconds, when he and Carlos (the bronze medalist) were banned for supposedly politicizing the Olympic Games. Since the protest and the ensuing backlash, Smith has worked as a football player, a track coach at Oberlin College in Ohio (where he also taught sociology), and as a physical education professor at Santa Monica College. He previously shared his life story in the 2007 autobiography Silent Gesture.
Co-writer Derrick Barnes is an award-winning author, who penned the Ruby and the Booker Boys series, and the picture book Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut, which earned him a Newbery Honor, a Caldecott Honor, a Coretta Scott King Award, and the Kirkus Prize (with illustrator Gordon C. James.) Dawud Anyabwile is an Emmy and Glyph Award-winning comic book, storyboard, layout and character artist, whose credits include classic ’90s cartoons Daria, The Wild Thornberrys, and Rugrats, as well as live-action projects like 24: Legacy. His most recent graphic novel was a 2019 adaptation of Kwame Alexander’s bestseller The Crossover.
