FREEDOM OF SPEECH?

Cover Story: Freedom of Speech?

Can black voices protest and speak freely without being surveilled, criminalized, and blacklisted?

The answer may lie buried deep within America's forgotten history. A history of more-common-than-not similar experiences, like those of olympians Tommie Smith and John Carlos for speaking out about the marginalization of black lives:

"I will never forget, either," Tommie Smith said in his autobiography 'Silent Gesture' as he described the backlash he and teammate John Carlos received for calling attention to America's inequalities, "the way no one in San Jose would hire me or John when we began to get involved in the Olympic Project for Human Rights back in 1967, or when we came back from [the 1968 Olympic Games in] Mexico City—how I struggled to feed my family, the lengths I went to, after taking my stand."

BLACK LIVES MATTER PROTESTERS HOLD A RALLY ON INTERSTATE 5 IN SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA, ON MARCH 22, 2018.