Pinback button for Olympic Project for Human Rights owned by Tommie Smith: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This pinback button owned by Tommie Smith represents the Olympic Project for Human Rights. The front of the button has a white ground with two (2) green leaves extending from the bottom center around the sides and nearly meeting at the top center. Inside the leaves at the center of the button is black text reading "OLYMPIC / PROJECT / FOR / HUMAN / RIGHTS". Text in green ink is visible along the reverse bottom edge of the button that reads "Empress Specialty Co. NYC NY 10010". The reverse of the button is silver metal with a horizontal pinback closure.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1967-1968
• Manufactured by: Empress Specialty Co., American
• Owned by: Tommie Smith, American, born 1944
• Subject of: Olympic Project for Human Rights, American, 1967 - 1968
• Type: buttons (information artifacts)
• Medium: metal and plastic
• Dimensions: H x W x D: 2 9/16 × 2 1/2 × 3/8 in. (6.5 × 6.4 × 1 cm)
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Activism
• Topic: Black power
• Topic: Civil Rights
• Topic: Olympics
• Topic: Sports
• Topic: Track and field
• Object number: 2015.231.4
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
• Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The underlying object's rights statement is: No Known Copyright Restrictions Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.