In 1936, Berlin, Germany, hosted the Olympics. Nazi leader Adolf Hitler aimed to use the Games to showcase the superiority of his people. Politics charged the atmosphere of the Olympics, but did not stop the Games from going on.
Among many other hateful prejudices, Hitler considered black people inferior to whites. With grace under pressure and a superstar performance, Jesse Owens, the son of a sharecropper and the grandson of slaves, helped prove Hitler wrong. He won four gold medals and set three world records in track and field.
"The battles that count aren't the ones for gold medals (but) the struggles within yourself," Owens later said.