Jesse Owens: The man who humiliated both Hitler and the 1936 Olympic Racial Hierarchy
For those who don’t know what the world was like back in 1936, the Great Depression in America was still ongoing, Hitler just took back the Rhineland and was growing his country’s power and might and the Allies were confused and frustrated with what to do with Germany. Hitler decided that he wanted to host the 1936 Olympic games in Berlin, for propoganda and to mask the targeting of Jews and Gypsies as well as Germany’s growing military. Hitler would be able to show the world how much superior the German race is.
The first of August comes around, and a white sprinter runs into the stadium with the torch and lights the olympic fire, signalling the start of the 1936 Olympics. Hitler had high expectations. This was his opportunity to show the world the racial superiority of the Germans, but there was one man, an African American at that, who completely crushed Hitler’s expectations and pride; Jesse Owens.
Jesse Owens was not originally wanted to represent America in the 1936 Olympics, as Secretary Walter Francis White did not want someone like him to represent a racist regime after what his race had suffered at the hands of white racists in his own country. A movement of a boycott began to arise, and eventually Owens was convinced by the NAACP if that there were any minorities in Germany who are being discriminated against, the US would withdraw from the 1936 Olympics.
When Owens and his team arrived at the Summer Olympics, it was a new atmosphere for them, but the excitement and joy of the event covered the true hidden intentions of the hosting party.
On the 3rd of August, Owens won the 100 m dash with a time of 10.3 seconds, the day after he won the long jump with a leap of 8.06 m, on the 5th he took home gold in the 200 m sprint and so on. Over the course of the Olympics, Jesse Owens racked up a total of 4 gold medals, which was a feat for the most gold medals an athlete had ever achieved until the 1984 Olympics. Despite the feats that Owens and his team had made, Hitler only shook hands and rewarded athletes who were German and no one else.
In the end, Germany still won the Olympic games despite America’s outstanding efforts. So Hitler’s plan of using the 1936 Olympics to promote Germany’s racial superiority was still a success. Also, Owens actually held no grudges against the Grand Chandellor, and they even waived at each at one point. Owens reportedly was most annoyed at the president at time, Franklin D Roosevelt, because he never once congratulated the athlete or got in contact with him.
The 1936 olympics told us the story of Jesse Owens and his fellow teammates who represented a country that hated them for their skin competing in an event where that nation also hated them for the same reason, and proved everyone wrong.
