1936-1940
Day 16 1936: Jesse Owens Wins Gold In Berlin For USA, But Snubbed At Home Who doesn’t LOVE Jesse Owens? The fastest runner in the world, who ruined the 1936 Olympic Games for Hitler! Turns out, AMERICANS don’t love Jesse Owens. Or, at least not the ones who lived in the 1930’s. While all the white gold medal winners were treated to college scholarships, invitations to meet the President, awards dinners throughout the country, Jesse Owens was not. The one awards dinner he was invited to, they made him use the service elevator while everyone else used the elevator for guests. Franklin Delano Roosevelt refused to invite him to The White House, despite Owens being the most decorated athlete of the games. In fact, he never even received so much as a congratulations from the president. Blacks were not allowed to be given scholarships, so Owens had to drop out of college to support his family- and then was treated poorly by whites who were angry he dropped out of college and therefore couldn’...