Olympic Pride, American Prejudice (2015)

Many people know the story of Jesse Owens, but don’t know that in 1936 seventeen other Black American athletes also travelled to Nazi Germany to compete in the Olympics. The group consisted of track and fielders, weightlifters, and boxers because many of the other Olympic sports were still segregated in the United States. Starting from the point where there was debate on whether or not the United States should even field a team, this film does a great job covering the experiences of these participants, contrasting to great effect the experiences under Nazi policies to the United States’ own issues on race, which continued even after the athletes arrived in Germany despite quite a bit of success at the Games.