All language subtitles for triumph.jesse.owens.and.the.berlin.olympics.2024.1080p.web.h264-cbfm

[ Suspenseful music plays ]

[ Cheers and applause ]

♪

-I remember the '36 Olympics

and being so revolted
in the behavior of Mr. Hitler.

How did all of this
make you feel?

-Well, you know, I'll tell you,
at that particular time,

not being interested
in the political situation

as it was,
until it was all over.

Then, I began to realize
how repulsive some of the things

that were going on
had happened.

[ Gunshot ]

-My whole life has
been wrapped up,

summed up, and stopped up
by a single incident --

my confrontation
with Adolf Hitler

At the 1936 Olympics,
the lines were drawn then

as they had never
been drawn before or since.

With each passing day,

the Nazis were coming
to represent everything

that free people
have always feared.

And during the '36 games,
Hitler found a new target --

the United States Olympic team.

-Thanks to the patriotic
sportsmen of America,

we're off to Berlin
with the largest and finest team

that we have ever sent abroad.

-Situate yourself in Germany
in 1936.

The games are taking
place 3 1/2 years

after the Nazis have come
to power,

after Adolf Hitler
has become chancellor,

and the regime has become
progressively more extreme.

-[ Speaking German ]

-Hitler had this incredibly
violent movement behind him,

but they also tried to create
this image of the Nazi party

where Germany looked
civilized and sane.

-Hitler arrives to preside
at the opening ceremony.

-Hitler understood
the propaganda potential

of the Olympic Games,

and they made the film "Olympia"
that would showcase

the new Germany
and Aryan superiority.

[ Crowd chanting ]

-Jesse is a clear threat
to Hitler's Aryan ideology.

So, from the moment
he steps off of the boat,

he has a target on his back.

-The stakes are huge
for Jesse Owens,

because he is living
in 1930s America,

where he is
a second-class citizen.

But if he can shine in Berlin,

no one can take that
away from him.

-The story of Jesse Owens
versus Hitler,

it really the story
of a hero versus a monster.

It's the age-old story
of good versus evil.

-But when
it really comes down to it,

it is the most simplistic
thing -- "Who's faster?"

[ Gunshot ]

-But the thing about
history is that it's messy.

And the Jesse Owens story is
a lot more complicated.

-We were everything
that Adolf Hitler hated,

and we wore it on our skin.

All I wanted now
was my chance to run as fast

and jump as far as I could,
so I'd never have to look back.

[ Panting ]

♪

-How long did you train
to get ready for the Olympic?

-I had this dream
when I was 13 years old.

So, it was eight years later
that I was able

to realize this dream
in Berlin.

But it was, um,
climbing the ladder

of trying to get there
is a lot of work,

and it's a lot of sacrifice
on the part of the individual.

♪

-My real beginnings aren't
on the European soil

with stadiums
of cheering people.

The deepest parts of all

are sunk into
an Alabama sharecropper shack

with the dirt of the Alabama
cotton fields under my nail.

-Our father was born
in Danville, Alabama.

He was the 9th child
of 10 children.

His father was Henry Owens.
His mother was Emma.

This photo is the only photo
I've ever seen --

what about you? --
-Uh-huh.

-...of my father's parents.
-This is the only one

that I've ever seen.
-Uh-huh.

His father was
the son of a slave.

After the Civil War
and the freeing of the slaves,

there were some families
who inherited or acquired land.

Then there were others,
like our grandfather,

who became sharecroppers.

They farmed cotton.

Whatever they picked
went to the landowner,

and they were given
a small amount to live on.

It was some form of slavery
again.

That family struggled,

just on a day-to-day basis,
to survive.

I think, in the end,
it was their spirit

that helped them survive,

and it was primary in
the building of his character.

-Those years in the South
were cruel,

because we never had
enough to eat

and there were holes
in everything we wore.

It was sharecropper's poverty,

with the suffocating prison
of 1913 Alabama.

-He used to talk about running
in the field

and how he just loved
the feeling

because it made him feel free.

-Jesse grew up
in a very difficult time

for black Americans.

[ Gunfire ]

It was a time
when you had

black soldiers returning
from World War I.

You've been fighting
for your country.

So you came back,

and you felt
that you were entitled.

But you came home, instead of
to a hero's welcome,

to even more vitriol.

The racism and the Jim Crow
had not abided.

In fact, there were people
who were equally emboldened

to stop this black empowerment.

This was the first time,
I think, though,

that black people fought back.

-They start to march
in New York.

They're saying, "We have fought
for this country,

we have shed blood
for this country,

and we've returned to a place

that is continuing
to uphold a racial hierarchy

that is discounting
our contributions

to the United States."

But this infused sense
of activism

is also met with a resurgence
of vigilante violence,

a resurgence of the KKK,

and this is why 1918
becomes known as Red Summer.

♪

Red Summer is a series
of race riots

that we see spreading
across the country.

-This was basically
war declared on black people.

It was a violent time
for African-Americans,

where there just seemed
to be no way out.

Jesse's family had to leave
the South

because they would have
no hope.

[ Train whistle blows ]

-To escape racial terror,
to search for opportunities,

what we start seeing
is people saying,

"We are going to leave
the specific racial terror

that's happening in the South."

And this great migration
North

is going to forever shift
the demographics of the country

and change the course
of American history.

-Every life has
its turning point.

I don't think
I'd be telling the story today

if it hadn't been for
the sacrifice my parents made,

taking us from the South
to Cleveland.

-As a matter of fact, Jesse,

your real name is
James Cleveland Owens.

How did you happen
to get the name Jesse?

-That goes back
to long, long years ago,

when I first entered grade
school in Cleveland, Ohio.

First time in my life
I'd ever been to a mixed school.

And I came from Alabama
being rather shy.

And the lady asked me my name,

and I told her J.C.,
and real fast,

and she says "Jesse?"
I said, "No, ma'am."

I says, "J.C."

She says, "Well, your
name is Jesse Owens, isn't it?"

-[ Chuckles ]
-I says, "Yes, ma'am."

And it's been Jesse Owens
ever since.

-And who was your track coach
at Fairmont, Jesse?

-Fella by the name
of Charles Riley.

-Charles Riley.
-Oh, Coach! How are you?

[ Applause ]
Good to see you.

-Charles Riley sees Jesse
for the first time

when Jesse's a kid.

First thing he notices,
he has incredibly powerful legs

and how he seemed
almost built to be fast.

Until now,

Jesse Owens had not been exposed
at all to the world of track.

So Charles Riley
would take Jesse

to the thoroughbred races

to teach him
what pure running looked like,

because he thought they were
the world's greatest athletes.

To Jesse Owens,
Charles Riley is really

the first white man
who's willing to invest in him.

And he works with him
for years as his coach,

building his technique,
building his confidence.

And he becomes to Charles Riley
more than someone he's coaching,

but really a kind of son.

♪

-For a young black kid
like Jesse Owens,

track presented
the widest opportunity

and the freest opportunity.

-If we look at sports
at that period in time,

there was segregation
everywhere.

And yet sports are equalizing

because either you're better
or you're not.

Ultimately, the time shows it
or the play shows it

or the performance shows it.

And that's the great thing
about it.

-It is an even playing field,
which is really alluring,

especially in track and field,
because you're literally

lining up at the starting line,
and it's a foot race.

It was a sport

where we see integrated
dual meets happening

before other sports.

-You're going through
the space

and you're told you're less,
you're given less,

all opportunities are less.
But then there's one place,

no matter what all of that is,

we get right here next
to each other.

You can't stop it.

-And running is freedom.

That's a great metaphor for
what a lot of black folks did.

Ran away from patrols,
ran from the South,

running to freedom.

And Jesse found himself.

Track and field, for him,
became liberating.

-As a 14-year-old
and a 15-year-old,

Jesse Owens is doing things
that are really impressive.

He's running
just about as fast

as the fastest men
in the world at that time.

-One day, Mr. Riley introduces
you to the late Charley Paddock,

then known as
the world's fastest human.

Do you remember what
Mr. Riley said to you

after talking to Paddock?

-Well, he told me
that I could be like this man,

but there was one thing
that I had to do

that meant work and
a lot of great deal of effort,

and those are the things
that I live by.

-Coach Riley saw what was
happening before anyone else.

He'd given me my legs,
and that was the beginning

of the dreams I had
of reaching the Olympics,

where all the fears and hopes
bottled up in me

since I was a child
would be tested

by the greatest evil
the world has ever known.

♪

-In Berlin, there was a parade
of an association of veterans,

the Steel Helmets.

They seek revenge.

-In the aftermath
of World War I,

Germany was subjected
to the Versailles Treaty...

-Versailles -- the delegations
of 53 countries

come to sign the peace.
-...what most Germans consider

to be a harsh and unfair
and vindictive peace treaty.

-It was a pretty desperate time
in Germany.

The strictures
of the Treaty of Versailles

require massive reparations;

the Great Depression setting in;

there wasn't a lot
of employment;

there was a ton of inflation.

So, as a result,
German workers are out of work

and the German people
are generally demoralized.

People are desperate.

-Riots start.

These disturbances
facilitate the rise of radicals

and help the cause
of Adolf Hitler.

-With the outbreak
of World War I,

Hitler was fighting
in the German army,

and in service, he had found
a meaning to his life.

-He was just as shocked
by Germany's collapse

as most Germans were,

but it took him a few years
after the war

to decide to go into politics.

In the early '20s,
he found a political home

in the obscure, far-right
Nazi Party.

-Hitler looks at
the Weimar Republic,

which is the government
in Germany.

And he sees it
as being dominated

by the politicians who signed
the Treaty of Versailles,

enabled by Jewish businessmen
and Jewish capital.

He sort of sees this intertwined
threat of elites and the Jews.

And so he started seeing
the Jews as the enemy

who were poisoning
Germanic culture.

-To historians, Hitler's
success with the German masses

stemmed
from his gift of oratory,

from his speeches.

-[ Speaking German ]

-Hitler's message was that
Germany was being threatened

by Jews, by Communism.

It had been cheated and
treated badly,

and it was unjust the Germans
were paying the price.

And Hitler was promising
to restore Germany to greatness.

-Hitler's idea is,
there are no classes in Germany.

"We can keep Germany German,
Aryan.

Among Aryans,
there are no classes."

Educated Germans are
hotly opposed to it.

They can see what's going on.

But Hitler was kind of
this silky politician

who very cleverly allies himself
with the German President,

Field Marshal Hindenburg.

-Hitler understood
that gaining power in Germany,

Hindenburg,
for as long as he was alive,

was a necessary ally.

In 1931,

in the last years
of the Weimar Republic,

the International Olympic
Committee awards

the Olympic Games to Germany.

-Their award is the Winter
and Summer Games for 1936.

And it's seen as
this great new dawn for Germany.

They're kind of emerging

from their
post-World War I isolation.

-Now, of course,
this is a couple of years

before Hitler and the Nazis
come to power.

-So it looks like this kind of
respectable bourgeois government

in Germany that will continue
to knit itself

into the fabric of Europe
and the world.

But the big problem
in German politics

after World War I is
that there's no viable center.

There's no government
that can form

and have an operating majority.

So the president,
Field Marshal Hindenburg,

gets to govern
by emergency decree.

-That's when
Hindenburg's closest advisers

convince him that the way
to break the political logjam

is to form an alliance
with the Nazis.

The problem is
that Hitler will accept

nothing other
than the chancellorship.

-Hindenburg doesn't
want to collaborate with Hitler,

because he knows he's
a completely unethical,

immoral guy,
but he says,

"I need this guy in order
to build a durable coalition."

And then he stupidly thinks,
"I can control Hitler."

-They made the single
most catastrophic

political miscalculation
in modern history.

Hitler could not be controlled.

At the end of February 1933,
someone burns down Reichstag,

Germany's
great parliament building.

So the Nazis presented the fire
as the opening salvo

in an attempt
by the German Communists

to stage a coup.

President Hindenburg
suspends civil liberties.

And then the passage
of the Enabling Act...

-Shall disband
all political parties.

Emergency law,
passed the next day

after the Reichstag fire,

gave him the legal power
to do so.

-The Enabling Act was

the legal political foundation
of Hitler's dictatorship.

-Hitler became a dictator
of all Germany.

-Now, in addition to that,

there was
increasingly mass terror.

-The writings of all Jews
are seized and burned.

-So, one of the first targets

was a nationwide boycott
of Jewish-owned businesses.

And thousands of German Jews
were purged

from Germany's civil service.

In the spring of 1933,
a special unit

within the party,
bodyguard for Adolf Hitler,

called the Schutzstaffel,
or the SS,

creates the first
concentration camp at Dachau.

and Dachau would become
the model

for future concentration camps
and death camps.

-There's no question
that the original sin

in all this
is President Hindenburg's

decision
to make Hitler chancellor.

-But now the accelerating
persecution of the Jews

is receiving a lot of press
attention around the world.

-Anti-Semitism
has swept Germany,

fire and pillage.

-This presents
a particular problem

for hosting this huge
international event

in which there will be
Jewish athletes

and non-white athletes.

-People around the world
start saying,

"We cannot countenance racism,
anti-Semitism,

bigotry in any form,

and going to Germany for
the Olympics does exactly that."

Almost immediately,
a boycott movement

springs up in the United States.

-I am here this evening
to join in a great protest

against the present
German government!

-But on the other side,
you have

the anti-boycott movement,
which is led by Avery Brundage.

-Avery Brundage,
like many people at the time,

is intensely anti-Communist.

But he even thinks
the Nazi regime

is a kind of model
because it is anti-Communist

and because it is
so intensely patriotic.

But also Avery Brundage is
an anti-Semite.

-As the president of
the American Olympic Committee,

Brundage is the liaison to the
International Olympic Committee.

As part of those duties,

the IOC hosts a meeting
of committee heads

over at the Olympic site
before the game.

So Brundage then goes over
to Berlin.

And while he's there,
the Nazis have arranged

for him to speak
to Jewish people

who are kind of in the room.

being glared at
by their Nazi hosts.

-He's basically wined
and dined by Hitler.

He looks around
at this guided tour.

He's charmed
by these German officials.

Germany makes assurances
repeatedly

that it is going to have
a fair process.

-Brundage says to these Germans,
"Don't worry about it.

You know,
it's the American media.

It's staffed
by German-hating Jews

who are writing columns
in the New York Times,

like, vilifying Germany."

-It's clear that he'd
already made up his mind

he would not support a boycott.

So it matters greatly

that the Nazis have
a sympathetic ear

in this enormously
influential individual.

-A man rises to power
in Germany

who will turn the Olympic Games

into the greatest
publicity stunt of his career.

-Initially, Hitler
doesn't want to have anything

to do with the Olympics.

He's so focused on building
the Aryan community in Germany,

but he's convinced by Goebbels,

who is Hitler's brilliant
caricaturist and propagandist.

Goebbels says,
"This is going to be gold.

We're going to be able to
showcase Hitler's Germany

to the world."

-The timing was very good
for Hitler.

Germany could present itself

as a proud, peace-seeking,
stable nation,

and it could put on display

the supposedly superior
so-called Aryan race.

-Hitler is now immersed
in this Olympic project.

And what Hitler envisions is
this massive stadium.

This has to be
like the Colosseum in Rome,

and it's going to be
this showcase of his capital

and his Germany.

-And black athletes,
like Jesse Owens,

will become a threat
to the political project

that Adolf Hitler is trying
to build around these games,

which hinges
on complete Aryan supremacy.

♪

-In 1933, Jesse, you've
received scholarship offers

from many colleges
and universities,

but you enroll as a freshman
at Ohio State University

in Columbus.

Why, Jesse?
-College of choice would be

one of the first
of a lot of dilemmas

that a guy like Owens faced.

What he would represent was
much larger than himself.

-In the early '30s, for
black athletes like Jesse Owens,

there's great scrutiny
over college choice,

and you can see this
in the black press.

At the time,
there was a great expansion

of historically black colleges
and universities

across the country with
their own vast athletic culture.

So what school is going to be
the best school to go to?

Where can he have an impact?

Where might he showcase
the race?

-The Ohio State University is
a very well-resourced place

that had a tremendous
track and field program.

-And for Jesse Owens,
the other thing is

Ohio State University
had proximity

to his daughter
and his girlfriend at the time,

his future wife, Ruth.

-This is my wife, Mrs. Owens,
Mr. Murrow.

-Good evening, Mrs. Owens.
-Good evening, Mr. Murrow.

-I first met Ruth Solomon
in grammar school.

If there are things living
within me that haven't changed,

it's my love for Ruth.

She picked me up
whenever I stumbled

and held our family together

starting at 16 years old,
which wasn't easy.

♪

-Jesse desperately needed
money at home for his family

because Ruth had
no form of income.

I mean, he had a
very steep mountain to climb.

And at Ohio State,
there was more opportunity,

so he had to make a choice.

-At Ohio State, first of all,
it was closer to home.

I had heard a great deal
about the coaching staff,

and my junior high school coach
wanted me to go.

-Through his trust
in Charles Riley,

he decides to go run
at Ohio State University

to run under coach Larry Snyder.

-Your former track coach
at Ohio State, Larry Snyder!

[ Cheers and applause ]

-Larry Snyder was a quirky guy.

He had become fairly well known

for having his athletes train
to music on the phonograph

because he thought
it would help their rhythm.

And getting Jesse Owens
puts him on the map.

-Larry Snyder was extremely
helpful in helping him get a job

where he could study
and do the work too.

He worked just to get by
and to send money home.

But as a student at Ohio State,
it had to be tough

because it was like
the rest of the country for --

pretty racist.

You couldn't live in the dorm.

Most of the black students lived
in rooming houses off campus.

Even though he was star of
the track team, he did as well.

-If you were an African-American
athlete in those days,

the only space you had
where you could exhale

was actually in the competition.

Everywhere you go, there's fear,
there's resentment,

there is isolation.

The only time you have is those
10 seconds or 20 seconds

or a longer competition.

-We have the famous
Ralph Metcalfe.

-My grandfather Ralph Metcalfe
and Jesse Owens

met for the very first time in
1934 at the AAU championships.

They competed
against each other.

By this time, my grandfather was
quite well known.

-Here they come! Metcalfe in the
middle was the fastest of all.

-He had competed
in the '32 Olympics.

He was regarded by
"Ripley's Believe It or Not!"

as the fastest man on Earth.

Great champions are defined by
the adversity that they face,

the opponents that they face.

In track and field,
they had each other,

so they pushed
each other's greatness.

-Under your tutelage,

Jesse went on
to newer track triumphs.

-Well, mainly because of
his exceptional ability.

He made track history
one day at Ann Arbor.

♪

-I had been working 10 years for
the once in a million chance

where a black boy out
of the rural south

would be able to go to college

and compete in the
Big Ten tournament.

-The Big Ten track meet
was the huge platform

to show your athletic prowess,

to continue to make a name
for yourself.

A few days before
that track meet,

Jesse Owens is wrestling
with his frat brother

and injures himself.

-He went into that track meet

with a back
so sorely injured from a fall

that the Ohio State boys,
his teammates,

had to help him put on
his track uniform.

Remember, Jesse?
-They had to carry me upstairs.

-[ Chuckles ]
They really did.

-Even his coach is saying,
"Sit it out."

And he's saying, "I can't
sit it out. Are you kidding?

From where I came from,
you know, being a sharecrop--

I -- No! If I have to crawl
there, I'll do it."

And that sets the stage
for a legendary performance.

[ Cheers and applause ]

-When the starter told us
to take our marks and get set,

I forgot everything...
except running.

-100-meter dash.

Owens again
covers himself with glory.

-What he does is probably
the most incredible thing

anyone has ever done in sports.

In less than an hour,
he equals the world record

in the 100-yard dash,

he breaks the world record
in the 220-yard dash

by an incredible distance

and the 220-yard low hurdles,

and he broke the world record
for the long jump,

which was then called
the broad jump,

and technically he's
also broken the records

in the metric distances,

so he's got five world records
in an hour.

-After the Big Ten championship,
his universe of possibility

begun to expand.

Before going to the Olympics
and winning a gold medal,

that kind of goal
was practically unthinkable.

That gold medal was
like going to the moon.

But now
he's really beginning to see

that dreams really
can come true.

You can now get to the moon.

-In the wake of the Big Ten
championships, Jesse Owens,

young as he might be,
is now a star.

-He's almost
an overnight sensation,

and he becomes this hero
not just to black Americans,

but to white Americans as well.
-King of the track,

Ohio State's Jesse Owens, one
of the greatest of all athletes,

makes history
in the National Collegiate Games

at Berkeley, California.

-Young Jesse Owens
finds himself in LA

with a new air of celebrity
around him.

There's certainly more
opportunities coming his way,

but also more opportunities to
get caught up in the fast life.

-Now he's hanging out
with movie stars.

He's clearly distracted,

and he meets a young woman
named Quincella Nickerson --

a young black woman in LA,
prominent family.

But now all the newspapers,
they're reporting

that he's proposed to her.

And at this point,
Jesse is unmarried,

but he has promised himself
to Ruth.

It gets kind of messy.

Ruth is obviously distressed.

-Something appeared
in the newspaper.

-Oh, yeah.
-Uh-huh.

-I know that my mother's parents
would not let him see her.

[ Chuckles ]
He was banned.

-So while he's
on this long trip

and he's supposed to be
running these track exhibitions,

the unthinkable happens
and he starts losing.

And he doesn't just lose once,
he loses continuously.

The trip turns out to be
a complete and utter disaster.

-He starts losing races,

in particular to a fellow
named Eulace Peacock,

who's a very formidable
opponent.

He's racing against the best
of the best day after day --

the Eulace Peacocks, the Ralph
Metcalfes, the Foy Drapers,

the Frank Wykoffs.

And at this point, he is worn
down and he's not good enough.

-He's running terribly,

and there's all of these rumors
swirling around about him.

It's a wake-up call,
is what it is.

-He's 21 years old.
He's not invincible.

A year out from
the Berlin games,

he's not in a position
where he can afford

to lose his self confidence,
to get injured,

any of those things.

He has to get
his personal life sorted out,

and he's got to get some rest.

-Jesse Owens goes back
to Ohio.

He sees Ruth there and he says,
"You know what?

That was all I needed.
-He gets off the train,

and he and Ruth
see each other again,

and they like, "Alright,
let's get married -- tonight!"

-And he had the sense
enough to know

that he had to be centered.

He lost himself in California,
but to his credit,

he rediscovered himself,

and his wife helped
him rediscover himself too.

He saw that "whatever
I was tempted to do

is totally outweighed
from this dream that I've had."

-A new matured,
committed, Jesse Owens

recommits himself to training in
pursuit of that Olympic dream.

-Jesse Owens still needs
to qualify for the Olympic team,

so he and Charles Riley and
Larry Snyder go back to work

as they build toward the
Olympic track and field trials.

-And Ohio's one-man team
steps out in front.

The champion of them all,

he's Uncle Sam's brightest
dark hope for the 1936 Olympics.

-This is the moment,
everything

he has been building
to for his whole life.

And if he's not in top form,
it's not gonna be good enough.

-He was this close
of going to the moon.

He was not gonna be derailed.

[ Drums beating ]

-In Germany
leading up to the games,

Hitler's vision was always
to build an empire within Europe

as the basis
for ultimately world domination.

In 1934, Hitler still
does not have complete power.

He has a big problem.

His own paramilitary
organization,

the Storm Troopers,

has a leadership that is
not entirely loyal to Hitler.

So in the summer of 1934,
he has the leadership murdered.

Here he's sending a message --

"I will not share power
with anyone."

But there was still the question
of President von Hindenburg.

-Death came this year to fall
upon Hindenburg!

Although active to the last
in his nation's affairs,

his old age finally inflicted
the fate of all men.

-When President Hindenburg
dies,

there's really nothing
stopping Hitler.

-[ Speaking in German ]

-But now Hitler combines
the office the chancellor

with that of the president.

Hitler becomes the Fuhrer.

-[ Speaking in German ]
-[ Speaking in German ]

-He forces all the parties
to dissolve themselves

and proclaim the Nazi party
the only party in Germany.

-[ Shouting in German ]

-Right away, he authorizes
pogroms against Jews

and has the SA going around
beating up Jews

and closing down Jewish shops.

And then he comes in
with the Nuremberg Laws in 1935.

♪

-[ Speaking in German ]

-The Nuremberg Laws stripped
Germany's Jewish citizens

of all their most basic rights.

In the course of three years,

you've gone from full rights
to no rights.

They were complete outcasts.

-This really presents
all the teams planning

to go to the Olympics
in Berlin with a huge dilemma.

You can no longer deny
that Germany's

an officially
anti-Semitic state.

So what do you do --

do you go,
or do you stand apart from this?

-In the summer of '35,

these calls for boycotts start
to rise once again.

And at the heart of those
tensions are the black athlete

who's caught between
these larger kind of

collective aspirations.

-All he wanted to do was
qualify in the Olympic trial.

So we go from Jesse Owens just
trying to be the best he can be

to now being thrust
into a political situation.

-When it came to these games,
there was one school of thought,

which was that the games
should be boycotted,

and that would send
a very clear

and powerful message
around the world.

However, there was
an opposing school of thought

that felt that if
the athletes do go over there,

they will have the opportunity
to dispel all of this rhetoric.

-Jews were clearly the target,

but blacks were
not escaping either.

Anybody who was not Aryan.

-There are a lot of people
who also point to the hypocrisy

they see of the United States.

How can we say we're
not going to go to Germany

because the way they treat Jews,

when you look
in the United States,

look at the way
we treat black people?

And that's a powerful argument.

-The Nuremberg Laws were
tantamount to the Jim Crow laws.

You want to make this big global
statement about these injustices

when you haven't done anything

to correct it here at home
first.

-People start
to approach Jesse Owens

and say,
"Wouldn't it be impactful

if you consider not going?"

-Are you going to cosign for
these crimes against humanity,

or you going to take a stand?

Jesse Owens issued a statement
and saying

that if any minority is
being oppressed in this country,

we should back out.

-But his mentors,
Larry Snyder, Charles Riley,

they say, "Absolutely not.

You are threatening your career.
You have to keep your head down.

You're there to run a race.
That's what you need to do."

-He was extremely conflicted.

He wanted to be a part
of the sentiments

of the black community,

but also wanted to be
a participant in the Olympics.

It had to be very difficult
and very frustrating and scary.

But it was his father
who made the difference.

His father told him
that they're going to hate you

whether you go or not,
and you should go.

-Olympic Games belong to
the athletes

and not to the politicians.

And speaking for
the American Olympic Committee,

I can say definitely

that there will be teams
representing the United States

in the 1936 games.

-Ultimately,
the boycott falls apart.

Boycotts only work
if everybody does it.

And when you have somebody like
Jesse Owens who has in his ear

mentors who are
not concerned about that,

they're concerned about Jesse,

they're concerned
about Jesse's future,

it's a hard thing

because it lays a lot on
the shoulders of black athletes.

It's a burden that they did not
necessarily choose to inherit,

but yet nonetheless,
it's their burden to carry.

-As a black man in America,

there are restaurants
he can't eat in,

hotels he can't stay in,

jobs no one will give him,

opportunities
that he won't be afforded.

But if he can shine in Berlin,

that will, in all likelihood,

give him a foothold
into a better life.

And if he doesn't rise
to the occasion in Berlin,

those opportunities
won't be there.

-He wasn't thinking about
being the role model

and speaking
for black Americans.

The focus was just concentrating
on being great in that moment,

this meet, this Olympic trial.

♪

-Jumping from the tank
to the cinders where

Uncle Sam chose his strongest
Olympic track team in history.

-Stars like Jesse Owens are
already sure of making the team.

-You can't underestimate
what he did at the trials.

Most of the people
were just trying to

qualify in their event.

He wanted to qualify in three.

He just wanted to dominate.

-Owens equals the AAU's record
in winningest undefeated sprint.

Owens is also
the long jump king.

-He qualified for the 100,

which is always
the most competitive.

Then he qualified for the 200,

then he qualified
for the long jump.

The fact that he qualified
for three

is setting him up
for greatness in the Olympic --

if he could pull it all off.

-"Let me out in front. I'm gonna
catch the boat for Berlin."

You made it alright, Jesse.

-Heading into
the 1936 Olympics,

a very interesting
athletic moment precedes it

that sets the stage
for what was to occur.

-[ Indistinct ]
-Just a couple of months before,

Joe Louis, who was
the American boxing champion,

faced the German named
Max Schmeling.

-America and the world
went into their corners.

It was probably
the most listened to event --

not sporting event -- event
in world history at the time.

-The significance
of this heavyweight bout

was that Joe Louis represented
not just America,

but the hopes and dreams
and aspirations

of the black community
at that time.

-Joe Louis was like our guy.

He was this 22-year-old
young shiny hope.

-Max Schmeling at age 30
was considered past his prime,

so Hitler didn't want
Schmeling ultimate defeat

to define anything that his
movement was working towards.

♪

Much to everyone's surprise,

Joe Louis got knocked out
by Max Schmeling.

-So many hopes are
now shifting to Jesse Owens

because he's really
kind of sharing the pedestal

as a black American hero
with Joe Louis.

-[ Chanting in German ]
-After the fight,

Hitler used it as
an opportunity to double down

on all of his racist rhetoric.

So now for Jesse,

the stakes are raised
even higher going into

the 1936 Olympics.

-On their way
to the Olympic Games in Berlin

on the USS Manhattan are
the best of American athletes.

-Many years ago,

my ancestors were brought
on a boat from Africa

to America as slaves for men

who felt they had the right
to own other men.

In August of 1936,

I boarded a boat to go back
across the Atlantic Ocean

to do battle
with a man who thought

all other men should be slaves
to him and his Aryan army.

As the traces of land vanished,

I knew I wouldn't see home again
until I had won or I had lost.

♪

♪

-Before Hitler came into power,

the German army, by treaty,
was limited to 100,000 men.

The Nazi leaders were
now ready to strike.

-For Hitler, there were lots
of reasons to really put on

a big international show.

In March 1936,
Hitler takes a big gamble.

He marches troops
into the Rhineland.

-The Rhineland, a strip of
land between Germany and France

demilitarized after
the last war as a precaution

against future
German aggression.

-Seems hugely significant
in retrospect,

but at the time,
all the powers that were

policing
the Treaty of Versailles --

France and Great Britain --
they were concerned,

above all else, to avoid war.

-This whole stunt made
a lot of people quite nervous.

What were Hitler's intentions?

He's rearming Germany.

Does he intend
to start another war in Europe?

-On the eve
of these summer games,

it's really the first pebble
in this coming avalanche of war.

-Here is an opportunity
to show the world

that Germany is actually
on the path of peace.

-The 11th Olympic Games
of the modern era.

A final line of runners
relay the torch,

which was carried night and day
in all weather,

from ancient Olympia in Greece

by 3,000 youths
of seven nations.

-The Olympic Games
are held in Berlin,

which Hitler has transformed
into the show place

of the Third Reich.

-So with the eyes of the world
upon them,

Nazi Germany has
really gone out of its way

to put up great wallpaper
and window dressing.

-Hitler ordered
that the persecution of Jews

be paused for
the duration of games.

It meant reducing signs saying
Jews are unwanted here.

This had to be
put under control.

-You don't see
the concentration camps,

you don't see the degradation
of Jews and non-Aryan Germans.

-The country's anti-Semitism
has almost forced

the International
Olympic Committee

to move the games
to another site.

-They even went so far to allow
a couple of Jewish athletes

to participate
with the German team.

-They were trying to show
Germany in a positive light

and try to leach away a lot
of this criticism

that was building
around the anti-Semitism,

the Nuremberg Laws,
the dictatorship.

They're trying
to put a real pretty face on it.

So Hitler contracts
with Leni Riefenstahl.

She did the famous Nazi film
"Triumph of the Will."

But for the 1936 Games,
he has her to do "Olympia."

♪

This is going to show the sort
of majesty of German athletes.

Muscles,
slab-like arms and pectorals,

hurling discus and shot puts

and pointing to the good health
and vigor and vitality

of this new Germany,

this kind of racial purity.

-Hitler has ignited
a new torch among the Germans --

hot passion to prove
the Aryans as a super race.

-Part of the idea around
Aryan superiority

really is rooted
in this idea of genetics,

that you can engineer
the master race.

And so a lot of emphasis was
to reproduce the best specimens,

and the idea
that the best breeding stock was

Aryan breeding stock.

Part of weeding
out these undesirable elements

from German society

was to not dilute
this kind of reproductive ground

for producing the best,
most superior,

most physically fit specimens.

And so the Olympic Games,
of course,

becomes the arena in which
to showcase them.

And Jesse is a clear threat
to that.

-I'm going to try
to bring back three crowns,

that is in 100 meters,
200 meters, and the broad jump.

-Aboard the Manhattan,
a shipload of

American athletes and officials
arrived at Hamburg --

the Olympic Games are open.

-As they were approaching
this very serious environment

in this foreign land,
they didn't know what to expect.

-The challenge leveled at
Americans by the Nazis was this:

the democracies were decadent --
they bred inferior people.

-Hitler, by now, had taken total
control of the German press.

There was a Nazi press office
that had to okay

everything that went out.

Journalists would insult
the black athletes

as not being racially equal
to Aryan athletes.

But then the Nazi press
office would say, "You know,

let's not say anything
negative about American blacks,

because we don't want to lose
American goodwill."

-In a place like Berlin
in which a lot of media

has been controlled
by the Nazi party,

the other thing to know
is that the citizens in Germany

are getting an eye
and a lens to the world

through the international press

that is bringing with them
stories about athletes to watch,

such as Jesse Owens.

So he has a target,
but he also has a spotlight.

And those two things are
on a collision course.

-Hitler intended to forge
from the Olympic flame

a propaganda victory
for his perverted race theories.

But in the ranks of the American
Olympic squad stood Jesse Owens,

American, and to the dismay
of the Nazis, a Negro also.

[ Cheers and applause ]

♪

♪

♪

-At the time when the Olympic
Games were set to get underway,

I didn't want anything
to do with politics,

and I felt
that I wasn't in Berlin

to compete against any one
athlete or even Hitler himself.

-The Olympic Games said
Hitler would prove

the greater vitality of fascism.

Democracy's athletes
set out to prove Hitler's theory

was pure poppycock.

-My sole purpose with the
Olympics was to do my very best.

-America's Olympic team
has had the additional burden

of proving Democracy's
athletes were not inferior

to the so-called Nazi superman.

-They are the favorites,
a squad of champions,

with the greatest of them all,
Jesse Owens.

♪

-[ Speaking in German ]

[ Cheering ]

♪

-The last runner of the torch
relay enters of the stadium

to ignite the Olympic flame
with his torch,

and the games
will officially be on.

-Newspaper men
from all over the world

were writing about Hitler's
super strong, super smart,

super everything Aryan superman,

but now those same newspaper
men were asking Hitler,

"Who have you got
to beat Jesse Owens?"

♪

♪

♪

-Over 50 nations
are represented here today.

Competition will be key,

for each country has chosen
its best to compete

against the rest of the world.

-At first, things are looking
good for the Nazis,

but people are waiting
to find the crack in the armor,

waiting to find true pictures
of Nazi Germany to emerge.

-The Nazis were intent

upon showing up what
they considered

the inferior decadent democracy.

They appeared to be succeeding.
-Hitler's there,

and over the course
of the day,

he congratulates these
conspicuously blond medalists,

Fins and Germans.

A big show is made
of him meeting them

and congratulating them.

Meanwhile, this competition
is unfolding in the high jump.

Dave Albritton
and Cornelius Johnson,

the two African-American
star high jumpers.

They're going back
and forth and back and forth

and back and forth.

It eventually becomes clear

that one of them
is going to win the gold medal

and the other is going to win
the silver medal.

[ Cheers and applause ]

-First Johnson, America,

a new Olympic record
of 6 foot, 8 inches.

[ Cheers and applause ]

-When it was time
for them to take the stand

and receive their medals,

Hitler abruptly
left the stadium.

-He just snubs them
and he's whisked away,

and they say, "Oh, he just has
another engagement to get to."

-The media
is quick to jump on this

and say, "Whoa, whoa, whoa.

You're not congratulating
these black Americans?

What's going on?"
-He's talking about

the need to purify Germany
racially,

so he can't be seen to be
enthusiastic

toward African-American
or Jewish athletes.

He can only reward
Aryan athletes,

but that won't pass muster with
the sort of international press.

So that's why he retreats.

-The head of the
International Olympic Committee

tells Adolf Hitler,
"Either congratulate everybody

or you congratulate nobody."

After that first day,
he chose nobody.

-However,
secretly he would meet with some

of the German athletes
and he would congratulate them

and shake their hands
behind closed doors.

He wasn't a statesman.
He was really a coward.

And this just goes
to demonstrate once again

the weakness of his character,
the weakness of his ideology,

and the weakness
of his entire identity.

♪

-The fastest sprinters
of the world are getting ready.

-100-meter dash is the most
important event for Jesse Owens.

If you can win 100-meter dash

and be proclaimed
the world's fastest man,

you have etched your place
in sports history.

-100 meters is probably
the most prestigious

single sporting event world.

Who's the fastest person?

[ Cheers and applause ]

The pressure of not making
a mistake is the biggest issue.

You can't be distracted.

-It's about locating the best
part of yourself at the moment

when it matters most,
in a country

in which
he is officially a sub human,

with Hitler watching.

One mistake...
it's over.

-Unfortunately, America
prepared him for this moment.

Being an African-American man at
that time, you were not wanted,

you were told you
couldn't go into restaurants,

you couldn't sleep
in this hotel,

you better get out of this city
before the sun goes down.

So most of the time,
that's how you felt.

-[ Speaking in German ]

Borchmeyer, Metcalfe,
Wykoff, Owens.

-This was my chance.

How could I let Hitler,

his cronies,
and his true believers

in that packed stadium
know that I was scared?

♪

I got myself together,

overcoming the impulses...

-[ Speaking in German ]

-Ready to fly.

♪

♪

-[ Speaking in German ]

[ Crowd chanting "Owens" ]

-He blows away the field,

equals the world record.

He's so electric,
there's this whir around him

that people responded to
and the crowd respond to,

as one,
starting to chant his name.

[ Chanting continues ]

We can't help but be awed

by this great
black American star...

in Hitler's capital.

All of the hopes
and all the promises,

all of the dreams
that come to fruition,

and now Jesse Owens is an
Olympic champion.

-[ Speaking in German ]

[ Cheers and applause ]

-I think that
the greatest moment

that a person can have
is to stand on

a victory stand far away
from home,

and then from the distance
you could hear

the strings of
"The Star-Spangled Banner."

And the higher
the stars and stripes rose,

the louder the strings of
"The Star-Spangled Banner"

would be heard.

I think that's
the greatest moment

of my whole athletic career.

♪

-Immediately following
the 100-meter dash, it was said

that Jesse Owens was personally
snubbed by Adolf Hitler.

It's not even just like
the front pages of

American newspapers.

It's banner headlines
above the fold --

"Hitler snubs Owens."

Was it true?
It's hard to say.

There are many conflicting
versions of what happened.

Hitler's been told
not to congratulate anyone,

but in the moment it seemed

that he was willing to
actually meet with Jesse Owens.

-The Defender account
detailed the snub,

that Owens was going to go up
to the box and see him.

-"Defender foreign press
service correspondence --

Surrounded by
his Nazi comrades and officials,

Hitler raised his hand

as the official Nazi salute
to the winded Owens.

Owens had started upstairs
to the Fuhrer's box

escorted by German officials.

Owens hoped Hitler
would receive him,

but his attempt failed.

As King Owens approached,
Hitler was making his departure.

Even the fact
that Hitler has found reasons

to avoid his
personal salutations,

he has failed to dim
fandom's appreciation

for the greatest Olympic athlete
who has ever lived."

I mean, it could be true
and it could be questionable.

My father really never
addressed it.

-As he used to say, he didn't
go to shake hands with Hitler.

He went there to run,
and run he did.

-Regardless if the snub
was fact or fiction,

if you were black,
you recognized

that type of disrespect.

That was probably all
the motivation they needed.

If you're not going
to acknowledge us,

we're going to force you
to acknowledge us.

And now that sets the stage

for Jesse Owens to
face Hitler's Aryan long jump.

♪

-The beginning
of the Olympic Games

were a considerable success,

especially for
the Nazi propaganda wing.

There was Riefenstahl's film
in the making.

Zeppelins were used to carry
the results of German victories

who were winning
the most medals overall.

Things are humming
along smoothly

until Jesse Owens comes along.

-The men's long jump.

-Hitler has great faith

that his star long jumper
is going to take

the gold medal.

[ Cheers and applause ]

-Luz Long -- he was one of
those rare athletic happenings

you come to recognize
after years of competition,

and he had been groomed his
entire life for this Olympiad

in this single event.

The broad jump trials gave
each athlete three tries

to make a qualifying distance
of 23.5 feet.

I hadn't gone a foot less
than that practice

or otherwise since high school.

-All he has to do is jump
23.5 feet

to qualify for the final

and move on
and look for another gold medal.

So, he does like
a little practice jaunt

through the pit...

and they call him for a foul.

He's clearly just practicing.

They're like,
"No, that's a foul.

You can't just, you know,
run through the pit.

That -- That counts."

So he's now unnerved.

-I'd been careless.

"Forget it," I said to myself.

"You've fouled before, and
there's still two jumps left."

♪

-He fouls again.

And at that point,
anybody can get nervous.

-I'd gone over the takeoff
board. I couldn't believe it.

-You're running 40 meters
trying to hit one board

in the right body position
at the right time.

It's really challenging.

You've got the pressure
of the Olympics.

And if you don't make this jump,
then it gets Hitler,

gets all these people chance
to say, "See there?

I knew he couldn't handle it."

-Jesse Owens is down
to one last chance.

-It cannot end like this.

Suddenly, I felt a hand
on my shoulder.

It was Luz Long.

The way his hand rested
on my shoulder

made me know somehow that
he was far from being my enemy.

"I think I know what is
wrong with you,"

he said in broken English.

"You're afraid
you will foul again.

I've been there myself,
and I have the answer."

-Ohio State's phenomenal
Jesse Owens

again takes the spotlight.

It's his last try,
and it's got to be good.

-I jogged over to the runway,

refocusing my jump on the towel

he had placed
in front of the takeoff board,

and began my run without fear.

♪

♪

[ Cheers and applause ]

When I came down,

it was more than 26 feet --

nearly an Olympic record.

On the verge of fouling out

and maybe blowing my
entire Olympiad,

Luz, one of Hitler's Nazis,

changed everything for me
at his own expense.

-The men's long jump final --
the great Negro athlete,

Jesse Owens of America, is up
against the German, Luz Long.

♪

-7.54 meters.

-His first leap took the lead.

[ Cheers and applause ]

-7.74 meters.

-I beat it.

-7.84 meters.

-The second of three
was even better...

-7.87 meters.

-...and I beat that
by half an inch.

[ Crowd chanting "Owens" ]

-They've had this spectacular
competition going back

and forth for the gold medal.

It really is
this incredible drama.

[ Crowd chanting "Luz Long" ]

But eventually Jesse outlasts
Luz Long.

♪

-Fate was against him.

Luz looked up from the pit
to see the red flag waving.

He had fouled, and I had won.

But victory is the sweetest when
you win it on your own merits.

I still had one jump left, and
I wanted it to be remembered.

Luz deserved my very best,
and I still had more to give.

-Owens.

♪

[ Crowd chanting "Owens" ]

8.46 meters.

[ Cheers and applause ]

-A new Olympic record.

I had jumped farther
than any man on Earth.

After the scene with Hitler

and the near disaster
in the broad jump,

the man that had saved me
from that

raced over to me
and led me towards the crowd.

-The visual of this
is really dramatic.

Here they were,
joined arm in arm.

This wasn't supposed
to be on display.

-Owens, America.
-In the context of

the Hitler Olympics,
it was a beautiful moment,

but it also shows what the
Olympics should really be about.

-It is the opposite
of the Hitler snub story.

Black American grandson
of slaves

competing against this model
of Aryan youth.

And how at that moment,
instead of being adversaries,

they became brothers.

It's a story
that Jesse later in his life

returned to again and again.

-We built a friendship, and
we corresponded with one another

for a number of years.

Then the war broke out,

and then I didn't hear
any more from him at all.

-Ultimately, in World War II
Luz Long is killed in battle.

-My father was sent
a letter from Luz.

In it, he says,

"Would you promise
that you will go find my son

and tell him
what kind of person I was."

-In 1951,

I had the privilege
of meeting his son,

and after showing
some pictures and letters

that he had in a scrapbook
that I had written his father...

well, as a result of that,

today I am now
corresponding with his son.

-Jesse, you've been a very
important part of my life

and I've very often seen
pictures from you

and the photographs
of my father.

-I have experienced
many moments in the sun,

but perhaps the most rewarding
was to have Luz Long beside me

on the winner's platform.

♪

-With every Jesse Owens
victory,

Hitler understands that
his agenda is crumbling.

So the only thing he could do

is to try to dehumanize
Jesse Owens.

He was a monster that was not
going to be deterred.

♪

-The 11th modern in Olympiad
in sports history.

These latest pictures show
the greatest thrills

of the greatest Olympics,

starring the invincible
Jesse Owens.

-As Jesse starts to win
events,

Hitler very quickly moves
to dismiss these.

They try to spin
Jesse Owens' success

and any kind of black success
at the Olympic Games.

To not actually be a threat
to Hitler's Nazi ideology,

they say these are
just uncivilized brutish people

who, of course,
excel physically,

but mentally,
they're not on par.

-So they just cooked up
this idea of black auxiliaries.

This was their way of explaining

that Americans are
an inferior race.

"The only way they can keep
pace with us Aryans

is by bringing
in their black auxiliaries."

-Hitler says,
"When we're in power,

we will have Olympic Games
free from Jews,

free from blacks, free from all
of these inconveniences.

It will just be a space

to showcase Aryan supremacy,
as it should be."

That becomes his quick pivot
to try to salvage the games

that are crumbling around him.

-America's track star,
22-year-old Jesse Owens,

gets ready for
the feature event of the day.

-Like many of the other
events,

his biggest competition was
his own teammates.

Now in the 200,

this particular teammate was
Mack Robinson,

the older brother
of one Jackie Robinson.

His brother Jack is going
to become the next generation

Jesse Owens --
the barrier breaker,

the symbolic black athlete

that a lot of people
gravitate around.

And then you have Mack Robinson,

who is just a shade off Jesse
Owens in the 1936 Olympic Games.

♪

-Jesse had excelled
in the 100-yard dash

and the broad jump,
but Jesse had no way of knowing

that he was also
to leap into history

as a champion of Democracy.

-The 200-meter race was a story
of resilience versus racism.

Jesse understood that
Hitler's rhetoric was a fallacy.

These theories of Aryan
supremacy, the master race,

none of this
was scientifically proven.

None of this was done
through clinical studies.

This was just the rumblings
of a madman.

They knew how dominant they were

and how competitive
they could be,

especially on the world stage.

-The gun sounds,
and there they go.

Here they come
in the 200-meter final

with Jesse Owens.

[ Cheers and applause ]
The crowd is stunned.

Jesse Owens, phenomenal star
of the American squad,

streaking around the turn.

-He's setting new Olympic
and world records

as he rockets home.

-A third Olympic crown --
time 21.2 seconds.

-The Olympic Stadium in Berlin

no longer belongs
to Aryan supremacy.

It belongs to Jesse Owens.

[ Crowd chanting "Jesse Owens" ]

-For somebody like Jesse Owens

who listened to the words
of Larry Snyder when he said,

"Keep your head down,
don't make political statements,

just go out and run,"
he's run the race,

he's won the medals.

Now you're unmuzzled.

Now you can speak to these
much larger geopolitical issues.

♪

-This was the message
of Jesse Owens sent to Americans

through The Pittsburgh Courier.

"This is the happiest day
of my life to me personally.

I am proud
that I am an American."

-I see the sun
breaking through the clouds.

Millions of Americans
will recognize now

that what I and the boys
of my race are trying to do

is for the glory of our country
and our countrymen.

-For a black man,

to go to a country
where you really aren't welcome

and gain the respect
from a crowd

that are not really for you,

it's like a badge of merit.

It's something
that I wear with great pride

and believe in perpetuating
what he stood for.

♪

-I'm very glad to have won
my three events of the games

here at Berlin.

-Owens has already won
three gold medals,

and he thinks that's it --

that he's going home,
it's a great day's work.

But unbeknownst to him,

there are machinations
behind the scenes

way above his pay grade.

-The last thing left
that Jesse Owens can compete in

is the 4 by 100-meter relay.

Now historically,

if you were the guy
who won 100-meter gold medal,

you weren't going to take part
in the relay.

You were going to let one
of your teammates

get an opportunity --
Frank Wykoff, Foy Draper,

Sam Stoller, and Marty Glickman.

They get their moment
in the relay.

But at the last minute,
it is announced

Marty and Sam are not going.

The two Jewish guys on the team

are not going to get
a chance to run.

-What would it mean if

two Jewish athletes won
the gold medal?

From Brundage's point of view,

Hitler had already
been embarrassed

by African-American athletes.

-If two Jewish athletes were
to take the stand

and receive any medals
whatsoever,

it just would have been too much
for him to bear.

-So Brundage has
Sam Stoller and Marty Glickman

replaced by Jesse Owens
and Ralph Metcalfe.

-My father, he spoke up.

He was insisting
that he was not going to run.

He truly believed that
Marty Glickman and Sam Stoller

should have been allowed to run.

-They said, "You will do
as you're told."

♪

-Jesse Owens leads
off for the United States

in the quarter-mile relay.

He's after his fourth
Olympic crown.

-Avery Brundage crushed
two people's dreams.

That pissed them off,
though he knew to put

Jesse Owens and Ralph Metcalfe
one and two

to make sure
that we win this four by one.

-They're set.

♪

[ Starting pistol fires ]

-Jesse Owens
blazing the back trail

for the American quartet
and picking up a four-yard lead.

-When you look at
the footage of that relay,

you can see
in my grandfather's language,

he ran that race angrily.

-From Owens the stick
goes to Ralph Metcalfe.

The colored streak tears
around the clay circuit

with the speed of the wind.
-He was seething with anger

at how this situation
had been handled.

You see in his body language

when he's running
his leg of that race.

It's just with
this thunderous intensity.

-Metcalfe passes
the stick to Foy Draper.

As Draper
goes flying in the lead,

Frank Wykoff is on his toes
for the touch off

for the anchor leg.
And there it is.

Wykoff now
in his third Olympiad,

provides a record-breaking
climax to America's

world supremacy
in track and field.

[ Cheers and applause ]

-Winning the fourth gold medal
was relief.

It's too much pressure
for too long.

There were so many
complicated issues

Jesse Owens had to deal with,

and ultimately the great
story came out of those games.

But we also have to tell
the other stories,

so people like Marty
have something to latch on to.

-So in the context
of an awful moment,

you had a great moment
when Owens told Metcalfe,

"You get on the victory stand
and take the gold medal."

Jesse Owens knew the narrative.
-In the '32 games,

the gold medal escaped
my grandfather.

So for Jesse to give him
the highest platform

and receive the medal,

it was a pivotal moment
that cemented their brotherhood.

-The success of Jesse Owens
and 18 African-Americans

was really anathema to Hitler
and the Nazi leadership.

And this is the last time
that Hitler plays nice,

because by the late 1930s,
he has no more room to run.

-Germany wins the games, but
America wins in track and field.

-In the highest visibility
events,

African-American athletes
punctured the myth

of the superior Aryan athlete,

and this was a very significant
defeat for Nazi ideology.

-Hitler said that
"we won the Olympics

'cause we won the most medals."

History said,
"Yeah, but you lost

because these black guys
came over here

and particularly Jesse Owens
came and beat your socks off."

-The crowd roars for Jesse.
They clamber for this autograph.

-He should have come out of
those games a hero.

-But the trouble came --

a post-Olympic suspension
for walking out on a meet.

-After the Olympics,

Avery Brundage sought
to send Olympians

on a post-Olympic tour of Europe

to capitalize on the exploit
of American Olympians,

especially Jesse Owens.

-You're exhausted emotionally,
physically.

Jessie said, "I'm tired.
I want to go home.

I want to see my family."

-After the most rugged
competition imaginable,

I felt sick, underweight,
and bone tired.

I informed the AAU of
my decision to leave the tour.

This performing monkey
was done being their PR machine.

-Avery Brundage loses it.
He goes on the offensive.

Jesse Owens will be suspended
from amateur competitions,

which basically are pre-Olympic
trials, Olympic trials,

or the Olympic games.

He says, "This is the line.

If you cross it, you're done."

Jesse decided that was a line
he was willing to cross.

-Imagine that
you're suspending the hero

of the Olympics because
he wasn't being a good boy.

If Jesse Owens had to sober
up about the reality

of being a black man in America,
it happened pretty immediately.

-Jesse Owens,
the world's fastest human being,

has a word to say
about his suspension.

-Well, my suspension,
I really don't --

can't say much about it
because I was tired.

I wanted to come home,
and I really did.

After all, I haven't seen
my wife for three months,

and I'm very glad
to be back home to see her.

[ Cheers and applause ]

-Broadway gives America's
athletic stars,

headed by Jesse Owens,

an old-fashioned
ticker tape homecoming.

Ohio's modest black flash

captures the spotlight
of the day.

-I arrived from Berlin

to a welcome few people
have ever experienced.

For a time, at least, I was the
most famous person in the world.

Perfection is having everything
you've ever dreamed of.

This was more.
-Ladies and gentlemen...

-But I was soon toppled
from my Olympic heights.

♪

-What he found
when he got home was disrespect.

Even at the places that would
host balls in his honor,

he was still needing
to go around the back door.

No matter the glory
he brought to the United States,

he was still just a colored boy

who needed to be reminded
of his place.

-He just left
a racist Third Reich.

Now you're coming back
to a racist United States.

Going from the skillet
to the frying pan.

-You come back to your country,
and you're treated like dirt.

It was devastating to him.

-Because he goes home,
he loses his amateur status.

"Thank you for your service."

Then comes home
to a ticker tape parade.

Can't stay in the hotel, has to
go up the service elevator,

all of that, and you're
right back where you started.

♪

-Jesse Owens is a star,
and he's expecting riches.

But as a black man in America,

you're not asking him
to take the vice presidency

of this company or to become
a partner at this firm or any--

none of that is happening.

-Because of this suspension,

there's not a lot
of opportunities to run

and to make money.

-And if you turn pro,
you lose your amateur status

and you can't compete
in the Olympics ever again.

But you're going to be able to
make money, presumably.

-A lot of offers where
different types of exploitation.

-He has made lots of promises
and none of those panned out.

-It's a struggle.

He struggles financially,
he struggles emotionally.

I mean, he's 22 years old
and it's over.

-People came to Jesse
and said, "Well, you can't race,

but you could race a horse."

♪

American Olympic star
had to resort to racing horses

to have two coins
to rip together.

-It was so hard,
'cause he struggled.

I mean, he really struggled.

It was such a hard row
for him to hoe.

-The most he can do is
hope for another Olympic cycle.

But the Nazis are still
in power.

-War -- the way of living
for the next 1,000 years

was to be decided.
-In World War II,

Hitler's plan was
a German-dominated Europe,

but the war had a tremendously
destructive effect on the world.

-It was this infernal
Nazi Germany massacre.

Millions of Jews.

-As the world is dominated
by war,

the next two Olympic cycles
are canceled

and Jesse Owens' dream of
returning to the Olympic Games

and continuing a professional
track career are over.

-There have been a lot
of rumors

that Hitler committed suicide.

-After Adolf Hitler
had committed suicide,

all of Germany
was occupied by allied armies.

-Surrender came
at Supreme Headquarters

after the most crushing defeat
ever suffered

by a major military power.

-Beginning of May 1945,
the war is over

and Germany became the center
of the emerging Cold War.

-Ever since the end
of the war,

tension had been increasing.

The Cold War
was becoming warm.

-And this reflected
the wider division of Europe

between East and West.

But you also have
a battleground of ideologies.

Artists, intellectuals,
and athletes

would be enlisted on both sides

in this great ideological
contest of the Cold War.

-Jesse Owens
is generally recognized

as the greatest track star
of the last half century.

Good evening, Mr. Owens.
-Good evening, Mr. Murrow.

How are you this evening?
-Fine, thank you. And you?

-Very well, thank you.
-Tonight, Jesse Owens,

the boy from the Alabama
cotton fields

who became
a great Olympic champion.

-Jesse Owens
becomes a Cold War hero.

He's sent around the world
by the US State Department,

where he goes to countries

that are part
of this battleground

between communism
and capitalism.

-And what will you
be doing on this trip?

-We will be talking about
our American way of life.

-And he becomes a spokesman

for the American
Olympic Committee,

for propaganda purposes,
of the Olympic principles.

-All of the things
that the Olympics portray.

When 12,000 people
can break bread together

and they can sing together
and dance together,

I think that this has
a great meaning.

-I was working hard
in the '50s.

It was as if I had two lives.

Only now they were using me
for what I'd done,

not for what I could do.

-Here is Jesse Owens,
a real Olympian.

-And I became a celebrity,
and my voice got louder.

[ Sirens wailing ]

-If you're American,
probably this is the way

you see the Black Panthers.

-The last words on my lips --
I am a revolutionary.

-[Chanting] Beep, beep, bang,
bang, ungawa, Black Power!

-Black Power is a consequence
of the white backlash.

Riots are consequences
of the white backlash,

rather than a cause from it.

-In the United States,
the civil rights

and the black freedom struggle
are at an apex,

where, in 1968,
the year that Junior died,

we have
political assassinations.

-The death of Martin Luther King
is a great tragedy.

-We have a lot happening.

And so, in the lead-up
to the 1968 Games,

the same conversations
of boycotts

are swirling
in the black community.

-Before the Olympics,

there was a furor
in this country

over a threatened boycott
by Negro athletes.

-At that time,
black athletes continued

to carry US track and field
on their backs,

and, in the eyes of the world,

are the face
of American sporting excellence.

So, what would it look like
if black Americans

refused to compete
in the '68 Games?

So the US Olympic Committee
sends in Jesse Owens

to talk to Tommie Smith
and to John Carlos...

[ Gunshot ]
...which proves to be

a really heartbreaking
confrontation.

-Well, I deplore the use
of the Olympic Games

by certain people as the vehicle
for political aggrandizement.

This, I don't believe in.

I don't think that politics
has any part to play

in athletics whatsoever.

-So you would urge them to go?

-That is my word, "go."

-The generational divide
and the political divide

between Tommie Smith
and John Carlos

and people who are ready
for confrontation

are meeting up
with this old guard

who chose a different path
in '36,

whose symbolic work
spoke a lot for himself,

but whose own voice
didn't really say very much.

-Tommie, do you think
you represented

all black athletes
in doing this?

-I can say I represented
black America.

-There was a spirit of protest
at the 1968 Games

to raise the specter
of human rights,

to raise concerns
against apartheid governments,

Jim Crow governments.

And that ran headfirst
into Jesse Owens,

who had been raised up
in a different tradition.

It creates a chasm.

-Because they brought
Jesse Owens in

to kind of calm things down,

he was being painted
as this Uncle Tom.

He didn't think
he was being an Uncle Tom.

He said, "Look, look at what
I did in 1936 in Nazi Germany.

It's far worse
than what you guys are facing.

Come on, give me a break.
You couldn't do what I did."

But then, "Yeah,
but that was then, this is now."

[ Glass shatters ]

-I remember, one time,

I was working at a bank
and I was waiting for the bus.

And this man came up to me,
and he said,

"You're an Owens,
aren't you?"

And I said, "Yeah."
He said, "You know,

when I first came to Chicago,
your father helped me make it."

And then he said,
"And, you know,

I wouldn't do a darn thing
to help him now."

-What?
-Uh-huh.

And I could not believe...

♪

...that he gets such a bad rap,

and that's what
really bothers me most.

-I think he was misunderstood,

and, as a result,
was disrespected, I think,

by those that he thought
that he was helping.

He wasn't all
the negative things

that people said about him.

-Jesse Owens was not
an Uncle Tom.

He was -- Like so many
black people.

he was simply afraid.

Right here in this country,

they're shooting our leaders
down and bombing our churches,

lynching civil rights workers

who are just saying,
"We want to vote."

But they hung on, and they
brought forth a generation

that wasn't scared of anybody.

Jesse came to see,

"You know what? At some point,
you got to take a stand."

-Around 1970,

the coming generation
looked at me differently.

And deep down,
that really hurt me.

Outside of Adolf Hitler,

I never really thought
I had made many enemies.

But perhaps I was walking
a tightrope for my positions

on what I believed
would unite the activists,

the apathetics, the old,
the black, and the white.

To those who see what it
took me nearly 60 years to see,

the choice isn't between
changing or not changing,

but between changing
for the better

or changing for the worse.

♪

-It's been 130 years since
the Olympic Games were revived.

And if you look at all
of the great champions

and all the great moments
and all the drama,

if you were to ask,
"Who is the ultimate Olympian?"

I think Jesse Owens is
the inevitable answer.

It's about what he achieved

and it's about the backdrop
against which he achieved it.

When you look at the story
of civil rights in America

and you consider the role
of prominent athletes,

Jesse Owens, you could argue,
is at the very forefront.

He was before Jackie Robinson,
before Muhammad Ali,

before the civil rights leaders
in sports in the 1960s.

♪

As we're revisiting
Jesse's legacy,

it should be to think about
how individuals

are navigating
these institutional pressures,

these geopolitical environments,
and evolving themselves.

By just wedging him
into this long history

of athletic activism,
we lose the nuance.

We lose his political evolution.

We lose the tensions
in his understandings of

how he wants to use
his platform.

We lose what happens

when the platform gets cut out
from under him.

-Jesse Owens has
a very complicated legacy.

He was used by a racist country,

and he pushed against
a fascist country.

He was caught in the middle.

Nothing he could say was right,
but what he did was right.

It was deeds and not words,
and that, to me, is his legacy.

-I had the great fortune
of meeting Jesse Owens.

That moment changed my life.

It gave me direction
and a sense of pride.

-Carl Lewis on the inside.

-He was an absolute inspiration,
as an athlete, as a mentor.

-Four gold medals. What are you
going to do with them all?

-Well, I was looking for
Ruth Owens today

because I was thinking about
dedicating one to her,

because without the inspiration

that Jesse Owens
was able to give me,

I wouldn't be here today.

After the Olympics in '84,

this reporter says, "Man, you
might have matched his medals,

but you'll never beat
Jesse Owens."

So I said, "You're right.

But because of Jesse,
I can go up the front elevator.

Because of Jesse,
I can do this.

Because of Jesse,
I can do that."

What I hope is that, someday,
these young people say,

"Well, because of Carl Lewis,
I can do this and do that."

And that's the difference
he made in my life

that took it way beyond sports.

He helped me get
a perspective of the world

I was going to be in.

♪

-When he died,

it was the most difficult,

devastating time in my life.

-Here I have, as a part of my
family, Mr. Murrow, is Marlene.

-I was devastated
as his daughter

because I always felt
so safe with him.

We were just talking
about this photo,

and it is of the four of us.

Our mother, Ruth,
Gloria, Beverly, and me.

He just said that we were
his four gold medals.

-Hello, everybody!
[ Cheers and applause ]

♪

In the brand-new
Museum of African American
History and Culture,

you can see the cleats
of the great Jesse Owens,

what he wore in the 1936 games,
in the middle of Nazi Germany,

under the gaze of Adolf Hitler,

that put a lie to notions
of racial superiority.

♪

-All human lives are filled with
the same tragedy and triumph,

loss and love.

Each of us knows that, some day,
our life on this Earth will end.

But what gives us our greatest,
most infinite joy

is the belief
that anyone can change.

♪

-So, now I'm back in Berlin
again.

Time has stood still for me.

This stadium has memories
that fill every corner.

-The road to the Olympics leads
to no city and no country.

It goes far beyond New York,
Ancient Greece, or Nazi Germany.

In the end, that road leads us
to the best within ourselves.

-Thanks to you, many a boy
is made a better man.

This is your life, Jesse Owens.

Thank you, goodnight,
and God bless you.

[ Applause ]