SAN JOSE — Its home will be a grassy area, ringed by trees and near a wooden kiosk stapled with advertisements for an online poker site, sleep-deprivation counseling, English tutoring and a men's roller hockey championship.
If San Jose State's interim president, Don W. Kassing, left his office in room 206A of the ivy-covered Tower Hall and moved to a window on the other side of the 19th-century stucco building, he would be able to see it.
Students leaving the new laboratory building or the old General Classroom building will find it right in front of them, and that's probably a good thing, because they're paying for it.
Certainly, the sight lines improve when you're talking about a 23-foot tall statue, because that's what is coming here -- a statue depicting San Jose State student-athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos in their raised-fist protest against racial inequality as they stood on the medal stand after the 200 meters at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics.
The gesture instantly sparked controversy -- Smith and Carlos were banned from the Olympic village -- but there are no hints of unrest here, only school pride, and a desire to honor two pioneers of social activism on the campus they walked nearly four decades ago.
There was a groundbreaking ceremony here recently to mark the spot the huge statue will occupy. A fund-raising effort by the school's Associated Students group -- a nonprofit student governing body -- has raised $225,000 of the $300,000 needed to pay for the installation.
It is expected to be completed Oct. 16, the 37th anniversary of the event that raised not only fists, but social consciousness.
"A hundred years from now, people will look at that statue and say 'What was that about?' and someone will say 'Demonstrating at the Olympics,' " said Harry Edwards, an activist, sociologist and lecturer at what was then San Jose State College. "That will just open the door to the discussion.
"The real legacy of Tommie Smith and John Carlos in this statue is that they provided a point of focus to pose their enduring questions to a free society. What is the role of protest and patriotism in challenging times? To have this statue on a college campus, it's so appropriate. These questions will be debated as long as America is a free society."
