Triumph: Jesse Owens and Hitler's Olympics

Triumph: Jesse Owens and Hitler's Olympics is a biography of James Cleveland Owens (nickname J.C.), born 12 September 1913, the youngest child of Henry and Mary Owens. Jesse Owens was the greatest sports person ever, and he remains so even today. On May 25 1935, Ann Arbor; Jesse Ovens set five world records and equalled one other. This event was, and remains, the most spectacular single day achievement in the history of sports. His legacy was not only the gold medals he won at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, but he also changed the hearts and minds of Americans, and people throughout the world. He changed how white Europeans saw black people, and consequently he made them rethink their ideas about race.

His nickname was J.C., however it became Jesse, because when enrolling at the Bolton Elementary School, he had an Alabama accent, and "J.C." sounded like "Jesse" to his teacher.

His autobiography is, "I Have Changed by Jesse Owens", which is a great book, however I had a huge number of questions left in my mind; so consequently, I always buy additional books hoping to find information from different perspectives. Schapp’s book will knock your socks off, because it is extremely detailed and laid out with facts, and you will feel that you are actually right there. I thought his focus on the Berlin Olympics was one of the best as it covers the social and political contexts in more depth. Although it is not an autobiography, his research covers the life of Jesse Owens, within a historical context. He intertwines the Olympic Games in Germany, the boycott movement, and Jesse’s life, to bring a depth and realism never before understood nor experienced.

The 1930s was a time of the Great American ignorance, it was a time when prejudice and bigotry were overt and covert and segregation found in everyday life including educational institutions. This was a time when the colour of your skin was the most important deciding factor to success. Schaap does a very good job of describing this time and how a sharecropper’s family would have struggled during the great depression. A sharecropper is more of an American term, which approximates to someone who farms land for the owner for a share of the yielded crops. The share was extremely small for black farmers, and life was tremendously difficult.

At one time, Americans came very close to boycotting the 1936 Olympics, and this is a very complex side story with many facets including the Nazi prejudice against the Jewish participation in the games. The Nazis had absolutely no intention of letting any Jews participate, and this facet of the story intertwines into the book very well. I thought Schaap made a very good attempt to explain the different sides involved and this is unique information, which many other books do not cover.

Jesse was able to overcome other people’s bigotry with style in a courteous fashion, and this book covers some of these aspects, which any young person will find interesting to read. This book also covers the controversy of whether Hitler snubbed Jesse Owens, when he won the first gold medal. It covers how the head of the International Olympic Committee forced Hitler to congratulate either everyone, or no one. It was a very bizarre time when American officials took great offence at Hitler’s prejudice, yet these very same Americans were prejudiced and bigoted themselves. Jesse never actually felt snubbed by Hitler, and in fact, he thought that Franklin D. Roosevelt was the one who really snubbed him, as he never received an invitation to the Whitehouse. Roosevelt was not a known bigot, but he was a product of that era, and he failed to rise above the common bigotry of that time, which should be a primary requirement of all Presidents. Nevertheless, it was good to hear President Barack Obama correcting this error by inviting Jesse’s family to the Whitehouse. As a Brit, this made me wonder how many US presidents it took to correct this one mistake. Is it any wonder why Negros still live on an island of poverty, amidst an ocean of wealth? Is it any wonder why America is not the great Country we once thought it would become...

This book also covers that tragic and inexplicable decision by the President of the American Olympic Committee, Avery Brundage, to suspend Jesse Owens indefinitely from amateur sports. This happened on the last day when the Berlin Olympics ended. Avery Brundage was a bigot, who enjoyed wining and dining with Hitler during the Olympic Games in Germany. He even failed to recognise the awful plight of the Jewish people, which anyone with any sensitivity would have been able to see.

I thought the book was highly organised into part works, separating out the periphery and leading to the first three days of Jesse taking part in the Olympic Games. This way the reader has a better picture of the people and environment leading to the actual triumphs. Once you start reading, it flows naturally and seamlessly and you will not want to stop until the end of the book. I always like reading books that are clear to read, and this book has a certain clarity and expression of thought that makes it a pleasurable read. It does not have too many big words, and therefore any high school student can easily read it, including me!

This book will prove to be an important and substantial contribution that many will continue reading forever. I cannot say if I have read any of Schaap’s other works, as I was just looking on Amazon to see if there were any good books going cheap, and amazingly, they have hundreds of titles on Jesse Owens going for almost nothing these days. Hence, I bought a few books, however this one was the best one worth writing about.

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