Existing comment:
Track and field stars Jesse Owens, left, and Ralph Metcalfe pose together in July 1936. Both athletes faced pressure to boycott the 1936 Berlin Olympics, but chose to attend and won multiple medals for the United States.
During the boycott debate, African-American and Jewish athletes faced pressure from within their respective communities to take a moral stand against Nazism. Some resented being asked to protest the discrimination against Jewish athletes in Germany while America had its own pervasive and segregationist Jim Crow laws. Eighteen African-American athletes participated in the Games and dominated the track and field events. Their victories abroad, however, did little to diminish racial discrimination and segregation at home. |