Jesse Owens, 1936, AP File Photo

In February we posted about the documentary film Olympic Pride, American Prejudice, that highlighted the history of the 18 African American athletes attending “Hitler’s Olympics” in 1936 Berlin.

They returned home to their segregated country, receiving zero recognition from President Roosevelt, despite winning a quarter of the metals won by the U.S. team in the games.

Eighty years later, the athletes—16 men and two women—received their overdue recognition by a U.S. president Thursday when their relatives visited the White House for an event honoring the U.S. team at this year’s Rio games.

“It wasn’t just Jesse. It was other African American athletes in the middle of Nazi Germany under the gaze of Adolf Hitler that put a lie to notions of racial superiority—whooped ’em—and taught them a thing or two about democracy and taught them a thing or two about the American character,” President Obama said Thursday. Continue reading →