A Small Fragment of a Big Event
At the 1936 Berlin Olympics, African American track star Jesse Owens won four gold medals in track. His forth medal came when his relay team set a new world record that stood for 20 years.
Jesse Owens was the son of Alabama sharecroppers who emerged as a major track talent in high school in Ohio and later at Ohio State University. In 1936, 17 African American athletes traveled as part of 311 Americans representing the United States in the Olympics in Berlin Germany. Chancellor (and dictator) of Germany, Adolf Hitler wanted to use the games to prove his theories of Aryan racial superiority. He congratulated many of the German athletes but left the stadium after three African Americans swept the high jump events. While Hitler avoided greeting and congratulating the Black Americans, he continued to greet German winners in private.
The 1936 games were the first to be televised and the Black American athletes struck an important propaganda blow against Nazi Germany and achieved a significant triumph for the objectives of racial equality and human rights.
I found this original 1936 postcard at the Wichita, Kansas Postcard Club annual show about ten years ago. It has a black and white photograph of Jesse Owens crossing the finish line in the 100 meters sprint. The card was cancelled at Berlin Olympic Stadium, August 3, 1936. It appears that someone began to address the card but must have changed their mind and kept the card as a souvenir. It bears numerous creases and small tears that give evidence to the hands it has traveled through and the hearts and minds it may have touched.
I consider it a small, but true piece of history and I hope it continues its journey with its positive message of human rights and human strength.
