A story everyone must read...

"It took a lot of courage for him to befriend me in front of Hitler... You can melt down all the medals and cups I have and they wouldn't be a plating on the twenty-four karat friendship that I felt for Luz Long at that moment". - Jesse Owens about German athlete Luz Long.


"...tell [my son} about his father and what times were like when we were not separated by war. I am saying—tell him how things can be between men on this earth". -Luz Long in a letter to Jesse Owens.


Yesterday, in 1968, the civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was felled by an assassins bullet. He was a man who wanted nothing more than for people of all races, creeds, and colors to live in peace and harmony, and to have the same opportunities. In these days, it seems like perfect common sense to believe in and fight for equality, right? Right. Yet, in 1968, with the presidential campaign of segregationist George Wallace and racial tensions still at a fever pitch in the Deep South and neighborhoods like Watts in Los Angeles, the ground was fertile to for the seeds of hate to be sown even deeper. So, on April 4, 1968 Dr. King was shot by James Earl Ray as he stood on the balcony on a Memphis hotel. Maybe if Dr. King was still alive today, a lot of the tensions that still exist in society would be a lot less prevalent. None of his successors have been able to match the power of his message. In fact, I think the words of people like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton have sown more division.


As I reflect on the loss of the incomparable Dr. King, my mind is going back to 1936. In 1936, in my humble opinion one of the most powerful statements against prejudice and racism was made, but you never hear it mentioned today. It was not made by a politician, it was made by two athletes. It was not just made at any venue, it was made during the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany. It was not just made in front of any crowd either, it was made in front of a crowd of spectators raptured by a personality cult and the leader of that cult, Adolf Hitler.

Footage of Jesse Owens in action at the 1936 Summer Olympics

The athletes? American Jesse Owens and German Luz Long. Two people, from two different societies. One battled discrimination and segregation on his way to the Olympics, and the other would make it to the Olympics as a symbol of the so-called supremacy of Hitler's Germany. They would meet as gladiators in athletic competition during the Long Jump at the Berlin Games.


Owens' path to the Games was forged by competition at Ohio State University, where he won eight individual NCAA championships in track-and-field. Owens became known as the "Buckeye Bullet". While his on track endeavors made him a star, he was forced to live the same segregated lifestyle of other black athletes. He had to live in segregated off-campus housing and was forced to eat carry-out or at "blacks only" restaurants when the team would travel. On May 25, 1935, he broke 3 world records in the long jump, 220 yard sprint, and 220 yard low hurdles. Owens also tied a 4th world record in the 100 yard dash. Some people call it the greatest 45 minutes in sports history. Owens nearly did not even have an opportunity to compete at the 1936 Olympics due to the racist nature of the Nazi regime, as the NAACP was strongly favoring a boycott of the Games by black athletes. Eventually, Owens and other black athletes relented and decided to compete after American Olympic Committee chairman Avery Brundage called advocates of the boycott "un-American agitators".

Luz Long (left) and Jesse Owens

Luz Long was a part of a German Olympic Team that was supposed to put the "superiority of Hitler's Germany" on display for the whole world to see. In 1934, Long finished 3rd in the long jump at the European Championships. When 1936 rolled around, Long was the European record holder in the long jump and was eager to see how he would measure up against Owens, who was the best long jumper the Americans had to offer. During the preliminary round at the Olympics, Long set the Olympic record in the long jump, so things were looking promising for the young German.


So on August 4, 1936, with Der Fuhrer in attendance anticipating a German victory, Jesse Owens and Luz Long battled for supremacy in the long jump at the Berlin Olympics.


While the Olympic record in the preliminary round had Long sitting pretty in his chances for a gold medal, things were not going well for the "Buckeye Bullet". Owens had fouled on his first two jumps in the preliminaries, and he needed a jump of at least 7.15 meters to advance. Jesse sat on the field, devastated that he was close to failing in the Olympics in one of his strongest events. From out of nowhere, some friendly advice was given to the American from an unlikely source. It was Luz Long.

Long wanted a straight fight for the gold with Owens, and decided to give Jesse some helpful advice. He suggested that Owens jump a little bit earlier to avoid fouling, since he had the ability to easily qualify even if he jumped a few inches sooner. Using Long's advice, a more relaxed Jesse Owens easily qualified with his third jump, so the duel was on between the two best long jumpers in the world...at the grandest stage of them all...the Olympic Games.

Footage from the Long Jump competition at the 1936 Olympics

In the long jump finals later that day, Owens and Long exceeded the old Olympic record 5 times! Owens eventually won the gold medal with a jump of 8.06 meters, while Luz Long took the silver with a jump of 7.87 meters. Long was the first to congratulate Owens after his winning jump, raising his arm and shouting "Jesse Owens! Jesse Owens!". The men posed together for photos and left the Olympic stadium that day arm-in-arm.


Nowadays, two championship caliber athletes embracing each other after a hard competition would not seem strange at all. Even then, it would not have raised an eyebrow other than an acknowledgement of the cheering crowds. Yes, you are correct. Now, realize where all of this was taking place: the 1936 Summer Olympics. In Berlin, Germany. Nazi Germany. In front of Adolf Hitler. Nazi. Germany. Adolf. Hitler. At what was supposed to be an event which put the "supremacy" of Nazi Germany and the "superiority" of the Aryan race on display for the whole world, a working class African-American college student had just beaten one of Germany's finest athletes, and this athlete was embracing this "subhuman" as his equal and his friend! Looks like Jesse Owens and Luz Long had just taken Hitler's propaganda Games and given them the middle finger while giving a victory to the true ideals of the Olympic Games and the true ideals of the human spirit. Humanity had overcome hate. Friendship had overcome bigotry. Friendly competition had overcome displays of might and superiority.


I truly think that the sparks that started to lead to the beginning of the end for Nazi Germany were lit by that amazing display of sportsmanship and friendship between Owens and Long. These were two men that were supposed to be enemies, and bitter ones! A black man who was a victim of prejudice and hatred, and a man representing a regime founded on prejudice and hatred. The two were not supposed to mix. Yet, against all odds they did, and they ceased being an African-American and a Nazi German. They saw not race, creed, or color. They saw a MAN. Prejudice did not exist, and this all happened right under the nose of the most prejudicial dictator in human history.


Three more gold medals followed for Jesse Owens in Berlin in the 100 meter dash, the 200 meter dash, and the 4 X 100 meter relay. Jesse Owens had run rings around the competition from Nazi Germany and the rest of the world, and in the process made a friend of one of them in Long. Even Adolf himself acknowledged Jesse's feats, in the words of African-American newspaper editor Robert Vann: "And then...wonder of wonders...[sic] I saw Herr Adolph Hitler, salute this lad. I looked on with a heart which beat proudly as the lad who was crowned king of the 100 meters event, get an ovation the like of which I have never heard before. I saw Jesse Owens greeted by the Grand Chancellor of this country as a brilliant sun peeped out through the clouds. I saw a vast crowd of some 85,000 or 90,000 people stand up and cheer him to the echo."

Jesse Owens (center) on the podium at the 1936 Olympics after winning the gold medal in the long jump. Silver medalist Luz Long is on the right, Bronze medalist Naoto Tajima is on the left.

Jesse Owens returned home after the Olympics to great fanfare, with a ticker tape parade down the Canyon Of Heroes in New York City. Yet, even though he was an Olympic champion, he was still treated as a second-class citizen. He was forced to enter a reception in his honor at the Waldorf Astoria through a service elevator, and President Franklin Roosevelt never received Owens at the White House. Owens said "Some people say Hitler snubbed me. But I tell you, Hitler did not snub me. I am not knocking the President. Remember, I am not a politician, but remember that the President did not send me a message of congratulations because, people said, he was too busy." How ironic, the ruler of the most despicable regime in world history recognized the accomplishments of Jesse Owens, but our own president did not have time for him. Go figure. In another twist of irony, Owens was allowed to room with white athletes in Germany during the Olympics, but not in the United States, as he had to be segregated.


Owens and Long maintained their friendship and kept in contact after the Olympics. In Long's last letter to Owens, he told Jesse to tell Long's son Kai about his father and "what times were like when we were not separated by war. I am saying—tell him how things can be between men on this earth". Sadly, Long ended up serving in the German army during World War II and was killed in action on July 14, 1943, during the Allied invasion of Sicily. Jesse Owens returned to Berlin to meet Kai Long in the 1966 documentary Jesse Owens Returns to Berlin, and he served as best man at Kai Long's wedding.


When asked about Long, Owens replied "It took a lot of courage for him to befriend me in front of Hitler... You can melt down all the medals and cups I have and they wouldn't be a plating on the twenty-four karat friendship that I felt for Luz Long at that moment". It was a friendship formed on the athletic field in front of a dictator who believed one group of men to be superior to the other. In their friendship, the ideals of Nazism were shown to be an absolute farce, and by 1945, Nazi Germany would be consigned to the history books where it belongs.


On the solemn anniversary of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, and with stories of prejudice and hatred still darkening our streets and our headlines, I feel that this great story of two athletes and friends needed to be mentioned, because these two men show us all the way things must be. We are all members of the human race, and there is no room for judging people by the color of their skin in the human race. Let us all pray that humanity will soon follow the words preached by Dr. King, and the example set by Jesse Owens and Luz Long in Berlin all those years ago. May we all "get to the promised land" and all join hands and say "free at last, free at last, Thank God almighty, we are free at last!"