Mastodawn

Qasim Rashid, Esq.Feb 22, 2023

Here's an uncomfortable American history fact. While folks often point out that after Jesse Owens won 4 gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Hitler refused to shake his hand.

But what happened next? Well, after returning home, Owens & 17 other Black Olympians were denied an invite to the White House. Instead, President Roosevelt only invited white Olympians. And it wasn't until 2016 that the White House finally apologized and invited their descendants to the WH.

2016.
#BlackHistoryMonth

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wilander

@QasimRashid Before boosting this, I wanted to check it. This is what I found:

“Archival documentation shows that Americans urged Roosevelt to welcome the track and field star at the White House, but that the president did not invite any athletes, regardless of race, to celebrate at the Executive Mansion.”

Source: https://www.whitehousehistory.org/running-against-the-world

"Running Against the World"

The 1936 Summer Olympics were unlike any other. In Berlin, Germany, under the shadow of Chancellor Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime, an African-American track and field athlete rose to stardom: Jesse Ow...

WHHA (en-US)