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A review by baileybooknook
Olympic Pride, American Prejudice: The Untold Story of 18 African Americans Who Defied Jim Crow and Adolf Hitler to Compete in the 1936 Berlin Olympic by Deborah Riley Draper, Travis Thrasher, Blair Underwood
4.0
Timely Olympic book review! This is the 2nd book I’ve read this year about the 1936 Olympics. The 1st was The Boys In The Boat, which I’m begging you PLEASE READ! It’s so good. But back to this book: Olympic Pride, American Prejudice.
Set in America and Germany during the 1920s and 30s, this book simultaneosly follows the rise of 18 African American elite athletes and the rise of Hitler and his Nazi party to power in Germany. The authors, Deborah Riley Draper and Travis Thrasher take us to Jim Crow America where these Black athletes were treated as 2nd class citizens by the same country that chose them to represent itself on the Olympic world stage.
Across the ocean we learn about Hitler’s rise to power and his successful attempt to hide what he was actually doing in Germany (stripping the rights of its citizens and building concentration camps) in order to get the 1936 Olympics to Germany.
For me the most interesting and maddening thing to read were the first hand accounts of these elite Black athletes stating that they were treated better by Hitler and the Nazi regime than they were ever treated in America.
Sports can bring out the best and the worst in people (as we see in every Olympics including the current one), and this book is a perfect example. Highly recommend if you like books about sports, U.S. race relations, or Nazi propaganda.
Set in America and Germany during the 1920s and 30s, this book simultaneosly follows the rise of 18 African American elite athletes and the rise of Hitler and his Nazi party to power in Germany. The authors, Deborah Riley Draper and Travis Thrasher take us to Jim Crow America where these Black athletes were treated as 2nd class citizens by the same country that chose them to represent itself on the Olympic world stage.
Across the ocean we learn about Hitler’s rise to power and his successful attempt to hide what he was actually doing in Germany (stripping the rights of its citizens and building concentration camps) in order to get the 1936 Olympics to Germany.
For me the most interesting and maddening thing to read were the first hand accounts of these elite Black athletes stating that they were treated better by Hitler and the Nazi regime than they were ever treated in America.
Sports can bring out the best and the worst in people (as we see in every Olympics including the current one), and this book is a perfect example. Highly recommend if you like books about sports, U.S. race relations, or Nazi propaganda.