As president of the USOC during the 1968 Summer Olympics, he issued the order expelling African-American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos after their raised-fist Black Power salute during a medal ceremony.
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The biggest controversy he faced came when African-American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised black-gloved fists and bowed their heads while the "The Star-Spangled Banner" was played during a medal ceremony.
This was the Olympics in which Tommie Smith and John Carlos protested against the treatment of black people in the USA by performing a black power salute during the medal ceremony for the 200m.
One of his best known pictures was shot during the 1968 Summer Olympics, when Dominis pictured Tommie Smith and John Carlos during their Black Power salute.
During the games, along with the Australian sprinter Peter Norman, he wore Olympic Project for Human Rights badges to show support for the suspended American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos, the two gold and bronze medalists in the men's 200-meter race, who took their places on the podium for the medal ceremony barefooted and wearing civil rights badges, lowering their heads and each defiantly raising a black-gloved fist as the Star Spangled Banner was played.
From 1964 until 1969, Clark served as president of San Jose State College, where he was known for his support of the civil rights struggles of African-American athletes, including Olympians John Carlos and Tommie Smith.
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In 1976, he joined Olympian John Carlos in an athletic delegation arranged by Henry Kissinger to the then segregated South Africa which was a step to the desegregation of athletics in that country.