AARP Chicago Screening Of Olympic Pride: American Prejudice

AARP Chicago along with Donda’s House was proud to present a screening of the film “ Olympic Pride: American Prejudice” at the Benito Juárez Community Academy Performing Arts Center in Pilsen.

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“Olympic Pride: American Prejudice” explores the experiences of 18 African-American Olympians who defied Jim Crow and Adolf Hitler to win hearts and medals at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin.  Set against the strained and turbulent atmosphere of a racially divided America, which was torn between boycotting Hitler’s Olympics and participating in the Third Reich’s grandest affair, the film follows 16 men and two women before, during and after their heroic turn at the Summer Olympic Games in Berlin. They represented a country that considered them second class citizens and competed in a country that rolled out the red carpet in spite of an undercurrent of Aryan superiority and anti-Semitism.

 

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The screening ended with a Q&A from Olympic Pride: American Prejudice Director Deborah Riley Draper who provided insight into the film and the history behind this most important documentary.