Olympic Pride, American Prejudice: The Untold Story of 18 African Americans Who Defied Jim Crow and Adolph Hitler to Compete in the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Deborah Riley Draper and Travis Thrasher

Title:  Olympic Pride, American Prejudice:  The Untold Story of 18 African Americans Who Defied Jim Crow and Adolph Hitler to Compete in the 1936 Berlin Olympics

Author: Deborah Riley Draper and Travis Thrasher

Read by:  Leon Nixon

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Length: Approximately 9 hours and 8 minutes

Source: Review Copy from Simon & Schuster Audio.  Thank-you!

I was fascinated by the audiobook Olympic Pride, American Prejudice.  It is the story of the eighteen African Americans who made the 1936 Olympic team and traveled to Berlin.  Like many, the only African American from the 1936 Olympic team that I had heard of was Jesse Owens.  This book tells the story of the rest of the African American Olympians from this team.  The story was intriging alternating between stories of the individuals and how they made it to the games, the history of how African Americans were treated in the United States at that time and rise of Adolph Hitler to power.

I learned so much in this book.  I was particularly intrigued by Ralph Metcalfe.  He was a sprinter in both the 1932 and 1936 games and later became a politician in Chicago and helped to pass the bill for Black History month.  He was also a helpful older statesman to many of the younger Olympians in 1936 and won the gold medal for the 400-meter relay team that year.  He also attended Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  I took a few graduate classes there myself and had no idea about this history.  It was so interesting.

I also learned that Jackie Robinson has an older brother, Mack, that was a famous Olympian himself.  Mack was a super sprinter that broke the world record for the 200-meter dash at the 1936 Olympics but was still behind Jesse Owens.  The book had a sad line that he was overshadowed by Jesse Owens at the Olympics and by his older brother later in life.  After returning to the US, he had a hard time finding a job and ended up sweeping the streets in his Olympian jacket.

Tidye Pickett and Louise Stokes were the first two African American women to win a spot at the Olympics.  Unfortunately, in both 1932 and 1936 they were robbed at their chances to compete.  Tidye Pickett did compete in 1936 but broke her leg during the hurdles and was unable to finish.  After hearing their story, I can’t think of Babe Dietrich in the same way again.

Archie Williams won the 400-meter dash in the 1936 Olympics, but his real dream was to be mechanical engineer.  He was discouraged from picking this major as they told him he would not get a job in the field as an African American.  They were unfortunately correct, but he went on to get a pilot’s license and became a distinguished pilot.  I was really angry about how he was unable to get a job in a field that he loved and was good at due to his race.

I loved track in my younger years and was a sprinter.  I loved reading about sprinters and runners in this Olympics.  I loved their individual stories and how together they were able to prove Hitler’s racial theories as wrong.  I was sad though that as African Americans, they were not treated better in their own homeland.  One positive though is that what they showed the world helped to lead to the civil rights movement in the United States.

Narrator Leon Nixon had a deep and wonderful voice for narration.  I loved listening to this audiobook.

I somehow missed that this was a documentary that came out a couple of years ago.  I watched it on Amazon Prime and I really liked seeing the faces of the people I had read about in the audiobook.

Overall, Olympic Pride, American Prejudice is an important part of our American History and a fascinating look at the 1936 team.