“You are traveling through a 1936 dimension of racism.. a racism not only of sight and sound.. but of mind.. if you don’t mind yo business you could get it shot off.. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination… as long as it’s not about white women… That signpost up ahead.. your next stop… the Conspiracy Zone..”
Throughout the 20th century as African Americans began to dominate American sports, history was sometimes changed to adapt to the times. I kinda don’t blame them cause them brothers and sisters back then was frustrated and they was taking it out on who ever stood in front of them… especially their white opponents. They say thats where Michael Jackson got those lyrics… “Just beat etttttt!!… No one wants to be defeated…. Showin’ how funky and strong is your fight…It doesn’t matter who’s wrong or right… Just beat etttttt!!!… Just beat ett…” and that’s what they were doing too… Anywho, I was reading a story about Jesse Owens and how Hitler didn’t shake his hands after he won 4 gold medals. The front page of every major newspaper in the U.S read, “Hitler Snubs Jesse Owens,” or Hitler Didn’t Shake Owens Hand.” That’s the history I grew up with. That’s the history everyone wants us to focus on. The truth of the matter was that after the first gold medalist had won, Hitler did shake the German winners and a few of the Finnish winners hands. He then left to what they say was an meeting which had already been scheduled. While he was gone a black athlete won gold in the hurdles… now pay close attention… because what happens next is the reason for the myth that Hitler didn’t shake any non Aryan gold medalist winners hands. When he got back, he was told that if he didn’t shake every gold medalist winners hand, then he couldn’t shake anyone’s hand. From that moment on, Hitler did not shake “anyone’s” hand. Jesse had not even run yet, when the Olympic committee told Hitler that. Thats some slick PR there.. right.. So what I am going to tell you next.. well I am just gonna let you draw your own conclusions. Hitler left in the middle of what was one of his greatest triumphs, hosting the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, the capital of Nazi Germany. They had work hard to get the Olympics there and had spent over 30 million dollars( 600 million in today’s money) building the supporting facilities. It was a propagandist dream come true. What meeting was so important that he had to leave in the middle of the games? It wouldn’t be until 1939 that Germany would invade Poland… igniting WWII, so they weren’t at war… what meeting was that important that he had to leave his baby at the altar…
African American Family During The Great Depression
Roosevelt Is Our Man..
In 1936 the US was in its seventh year of the Great Depression and it was also a presidential election year. Roosevelt was running for his second term and had begun to introduce other programs in what he called his New Deal. During his first term he had introduced social security and unemployment insurance. Roosevelt ran against a man named Alf Landon. Never heard of him? Me neither. That’s because Roosevelt beat the “Do Da,” out of him in the presidential elections, I mean he whipped that boy like a french souffle.. he crush that cat like a fat man on a paper toilet.. he wrapped that shiz up like the end of a two minute news cast.. Landon lost to Roosevelt, 8 electoral votes to Roosevelt’s 530 electoral votes.. he smacked him like he had stole the hot sauce at the BBQ… he jumped on him like…. okay I guess you get the point.. Anyway not to many people remember Landon. Now Landon wasn’t particularly racist, I mean he backed some of Roosevelt’s New Deal proposals and was considered a liberal Republican. The stuff they didn’t agree on shouldn’t have earned him an azz whippin like that.. as a matter of fact I can think of only a couple of things that would get a white politician in 1936 that kinda loss.. 1, he watched a black man smile at a white woman and didn’t call the police and 2, he asked for chitlins and potato salad when they asked him what he wanted to eat at the card game… Anywee, the real reason that I believe he lost by that much was that his nomination was supported by none other than… Jesse Owens. Yep that’s right.. that Jesse Owens.. the black national and international star!! Now I’m getting ready to ruffle some feathers… hell ruffle them? I’m getting ready to pull those suckers out, put one in my hat and tie the rest around my waist! We are now about to enter the Conspiracy Zone.
Naw.. I Ain’t Seen Him..
In 1936 we had few black heroes. But of those few black heroes, seventeen of them were on the 1936 Olympic team. They also carried the pride of the African American as they competed against the ideology of the master race and they hailed from all over black America. Now what do you think was the one rule, which if it was broken could not be tolerated… I mean besides the Nonigno Rule? Oh what’s the Nonigno Rule..? Being anywhere near, around, or in the vicinity of a white women without a white man present… that’s a Nonigno.. But the next rule that could not be tolerated was the black voting. Now because of the Jim Crow laws down south, black voting wasn’t was such a problem and in fact at that time most blacks lived in the South. Even now 55 percent of the black population lives in the south. However guess where the other blacks were living.. up north and they were voting their azz off. Because of the New Deal blacks had switched their political support from the Republicans and to the Democrats. Meanwhile down south, African Americans were fighting back against Jim Crow in the courts when a man named Lloyd Gaines told Missouri if he couldn’t attend the state sponsored law school because he was black, then Missouri would have to build him a law school as prescribed in Plessy v. Ferguson… the Supreme Court decision that made separate but equal the law of the land. ( that’s Lloyd in the picture above) Instead of building him a law school, they let him attend the University of Missouri Law School. The case would be one of the stepping stones to Brown v, Board of Education which eventually overturned Plessy v. Ferguson. Now I joke a lot but what I am about to tell you is the holy truth… after Gaines won the case and enrolled at the university, he disappeared one night and was never heard from again… true story. Now I don’t know what to tell you, but If I was you, I wouldn’t be thinking about moving to Missouri anytime soon. Anywee…
Smile.. Now Say Franklin Roosevelt…
So yeah, it was the beginning of the modern civil rights era and in a few decades it would culminate with a march on Washington. So here we are… preparing to go to war with very few visible leaders leaders. Except we had one with national and some international visibility… Jesse Owens… only thing he was voting for the other guy… the Republican. Now this is where I am going to take you down a path other than the path history has lead us down. It is only conjecture, but I thought I would throw it out there for your enjoyment. As I said earlier, in 1936 Europe, Hitler was “Boss Man,” He had brought Germany back from a bombed out little ##@ hole to the pinnacle of power among the European countries on the heels of racism and nationalism. This dude was a powerful… I mean they dropped the phrase “good morning” and changed it to “Heil Hitler.” The whole world was talking about him and the extravagance of the 1936 Berlin Olympics, the camera’s were rolling, the reporters were reporting, and the world leaders were salivating.. then right in the middle of his basking in the sun.. he has to leave for a meeting? Suppose I tell you that the meeting could have been a call with Roosevelt… that it was Roosevelt who called him to tell him not to shake Jesse Owens hand. Why? A picture with Hitler could have cemented Jesse Owens as an international star and raised his stature in the black community and among some whites. With an elevated stature, Landon could have used Owens to help convinced millions to take another look at him. The election was just a few months away and allowing Owens to rise with an elevated international and national stature and then have that stature directed for the good of his opponent.. could not be tolerated. Whitehouse: “Look Fuhrer.. what can we do for you not to encourage the black boy Owens..”
Fuhrer: Drop the two Jews out of the race..
Whitehouse: Done..
Now if you do a little research you will see that Hitler did not keep his word technically. Owens was brought under the winners stand, where a seated Hitler waved and smiled at him. In his own words Jesse Owens said it was not true that the Fuhrer did not greet him… and that the only one that did not greet him was Roosevelt when he got back. Only the white Olympians were invited to the White House. Now although it wasn’t like the blacks in Germany were hanging out with the Gestapo drinking beers or anything, but at that time the racist were firmly focused on their Jewish population. Germany had a significant black population left over from WWI. Black troops from the French Foreign Legion had married and courted German women resulting in thousands of black children. The Nazi’s were crazy, but they wasn’t crazy enough to tell German women they were about to gas their children. So blacks were tolerated in Germany if only in the years before WWII begin.
Well folks that’s it.. As quoted by Winston Churchill ” History is written by the victors.”… but so are conspiracies.
Thanks for reading Hill1News.
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