Jesse Owens and the Berlin Olympic Games

背景

Jesse Owens won four gold medals at the Berlin Olympic Games of 1–16 August 1936: in the 100 metres, the 200 metres, the long jump and with the US 4 × 100 metres relay team. Newspaper reports from 1936 describe the Olympic Stadium crowd cheering him loudly and acknowledging his athletic performances with ovations. The German regime used the Games for international propaganda; the Nuremberg racial laws remained in force while, among other measures, anti-Jewish signs were temporarily removed from public view. On returning to the United States, Owens received public celebrations, including a parade in New York. At the same time, as a Black American he continued to encounter racial separation and segregation. President Franklin D. Roosevelt did not invite him to a White House reception or personally congratulate him on his Olympic achievements. According to the biographical sources consulted, Owens also received no official congratulatory telegram from the president. The National Archives documents that the other Black American medal winners of 1936 likewise received no White House invitation. For a celebration at New York's Waldorf-Astoria hotel, Owens had to use the freight elevator to reach the gathering because of the racial access restrictions of the period. The International Olympic Committee describes this specific incident in its account of Owens' life after the Games. This treatment at home occurred alongside public celebrations and the ovations he had previously received in Berlin. In 1976 Owens received the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House from President Gerald Ford.

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资料来源： Smithsonian — Jesse Owens Wins his First Gold (2011) · National Archives — Jesse Owens, American Hero (2016) · IOC — Jesse Owens' life after the Olympic Games · USHMM — The Nazi Olympics: Berlin 1936