Many Americans know the story of Jesse Owens, whose four gold medals at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin resoundingly disproved the Nazi theory of white supremacy. But Owens wasn’t the only African American athlete on the U.S. team. There were 18 Black athletes, including two women, who competed at those Games. Their stories are told in the book “Olympic Pride, American Prejudice: The Untold Story of 18 African Americans Who Defied Jim Crow and Adolf Hitler to Compete in the 1936 Berlin Olympics.”
“This book is about sports, but it’s really about 18 athletes that defied the dominant narrative at that time about Black athletes and Black people,” said award-winning director Deborah Riley Draper, co-author of the book, which is presented under actor Blair Underwood’s Simon & Schuster imprint.
Riley Draper directed a documentary film on this subject in 2016, executive produced and narrated by Underwood. The book is a greater exploration of this time and the political happenings around this sporting event.
Among those 18 athletes was Archie Williams, who won a gold medal in the 400M, and future Congressman Ralph Metcalfe, who won silver in the 100M and gold in the 4×100 relay. The two women on the team, Tidye Pickett and Louise Stokes, did not bring home medals, but they were the first Black women to represent the U.S. in the Olympics.
“Tidye Pickett [a hurdler] and Louise Stokes [a sprinter] were on the 1932 team and they were benched by U.S. coaches right before their competitions and replaced by white runners,” said Riley Draper. “In 1936, they made friends with athletes from around the world.”
In 1936, Stokes was benched again. Pickett made it to the semi-finals in the 80-meter hurdles before tripping and breaking her foot. Riley Draper said when they returned from the Olympics, America forgot about them and they went on with their lives. Pickett became a school teacher and eventually a principal.
“The fact that Louise was benched twice was her motivation for creating the Colored Women’s Bowling League, which became a place where Black female athletes who were interested in bowling could compete and they were never benched. Everyone could compete and may the best person win fair and square. It was a safe space for Black women,” said Riley Draper.
She said U.S. media focused solely on Owens because they didn’t want to write about multiple Black athletes who were also excellent students. For the film and the book, Riley Draper interviewed families and poured through newspaper articles and photographs.
“It shaped them in a lot of ways,” said Riley Draper. “When people read this story, I want them to understand that…we have to accord an equality to everyone. That’s how you create success.”