During the 1936 Summer Olympic Games, James Cleveland “Jesse”
Owens won four gold medals in Berlin: He came in first in the
100 meters, the 200 meters, the long jump and was part of the
4×100-meter relay team that also took gold. Owens’ success was a
poke in the eye of Adolf Hitler, who had hoped the 1936 games
would serve as a showcase his Aryan propaganda. The column
below, published Aug. 15, 1936, my father chided Hitler, whom he
described as a “one-time Austrian house painter” and a
“pervert,” who snubbed Owens. He cited news reports that while
Hitler had “received and congratulated in his private quarters
the German winners, he was conspicuously absent from his box
when the occasion arose that he should extend similar
felicitations to the American Negro winners.” It remains unclear
whether the reports of Hitler’s snub are true. The LA Times
recently included the story as one of the “Top Ten Olympic
Controversies.” “Perhaps the most enduring myth of the Olympic
Games is that Adolf Hitler refused to extend