In October 1963, civic leaders in Detroit staged a downtown celebration formally announcing the city’s bid to host the 1968 Olympic games. African-American hurdler Hayes Jones, a Pontiac, Michigan native who went on to win a gold metal in the 1964 Olympics, kicked off the event by carrying an Olympic torch to the epicenter of the proposed games.

As the national anthem played, Jones approached the podium, but didn’t receive a hero’s welcome. Protestors from an array of local civil rights organizations carrying picket signs surrounded his approach, using the occasion to point out the hypocrisy of Detroit’s bid to host an event symbolizing international brotherhood while housing discrimination remained rampant and legally sanctioned due to the city’s unwillingness to pass an open housing ordinance.

One group of protestors — members of UHURU, a proto-Black Power student organization formed at Wayne State University earlier in the year — booed the national anthem. General Gordon Baker Jr, took his sign, swung it at Jones, and admonished the sprinter, “We’ve been running from the white man too long!”