"Darktown Parade": African Americans in the Berlin Olympics of 1936 (2007)

Historically Speaking · November/December 2007 "Darktown Parade": African Americans in the Berlin Olympics of 1936 David Clay Large Whenever the subject of African Americans at the 1936 Berlin Olympics arises, most people invariably think of one figure : Jesse Owens. But Owens was but one of many American black stars in the 1936 Games. AfricanAmerican athletes won a total of thirteen medals in track and field in Berlin. All told, American blacks accounted for 83 of America's 1 07 points in track and field. Commenting on this unprecedented display of black power, an American journalist spoke of a "Darktown Parade." Impressive as this achievement undeniably was, the broader importance of the Americanblacks' presence in the 1936 Summer Olympics lies less in the medal haul than in the political and social controversy surrounding African-American participation in that affair, and in the manner in which this performance was interpreted by commentators in Germany and America. In the end, the story of American blacks at the "Nazi Games" turns out to be much more complicated than a simple tale of success. This story begins well before the Games opened. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) had awarded the 1936 Games to Berlin in 1931, when Germany was still a democracy, albeit a beleaguered one. Less than two vears later Germany fell under the control of the Nazis, who had expressed nothing but contempt for the modern Olympic movement, and indeed for all high-level international sport. In the earlv 1 920s Nazi commentators had objected to Germans competing with athletes from the Allied countries , which had imposed the "Yoke of Versailles" on the Fatherland. They had also objected to "Aryans" competing with "racial inferiors" like Slavs, blacks, andJews. The Nazi objection to competingwith blacks was particularly relevant because black athletes, having had a modest presence in the Olympics of 1920 and 1 924, performed especially well in the Los Angeles Games of 1932. African-American runners Eddie Tolan and Ralph Metcalfe excelled in the sprints, with Tolan settingaworld record in the 100-meterrace and an Olympic record in the 200-meter event. For Nazi ideologues, it was a disgrace that white athletes had deigned to compete with the likes of Tolan and Metcalfe . And looking toward the 1936 Games, the VölkischerBeobachter, the Nazi Party's principal organ, editorialized: "Blacks have no place in the Olympics ___ Unfortunately, these days one often sees the free white man havingto compete with blacks for the victory palm. This is a disgrace and a degradation of the Olympic ideawithout parallel, and the ancient Greeks would turn over in their graves if they knew what modern men were doing with their sacred national games .... The next Olympic Games will take place Jesse Owens at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Library of Congress , Prints and Photographs Division [reproduction number , LC-USZ62-27663J. in Berlin. Hopefully, the men in control will do their duty. Blacks mustbe excluded. We demand it." As late as 1932, Hider himself called the modern Olympic Games "a plot against the Aryan race by Freemasons andJews." Not long after assuming power inJanuary 1933, Hider changed his tune in regard to the Olympics, allowing himself to be convinced that hosting the Games might bring a much-needed propaganda boost to the fledgling Third Reich. His government also backed away from the earlier Nazi position on Jewish and black athletes, promising to welcome to Berlin "competitors of all races." The fervent promises from Hitler's government and Germany's Olympic organizing committee that Germany would abide by all Olympic regulations in hosting the 1936 Games persuaded the IOC to hold fast to its initial award of the Summer Games to Berlin. But if the IOC proved satisfied with the blandishments from Berlin, many critics of Nazi Germany remained convinced that the Third Reich was no place to hold a festival that professed to promote fair play and brotherhood among the peoples of the world. After all, the Nazi regime continued to persecute GermanJews in mostavenues of publiclife, and German Olympic officials made clear that although theywould tolerateJews and blacks on foreign teams competingin Berlin, Germany's own teams would be exclusively "Aryan." In the face of these realities...