The Southern California Committee For The Olympic Games (SCCOG) Presents "Politics, Race, and Propaganda: The Nazi Olympics, Berlin 1936"

The Southern California Committee For The Olympic Games (SCCOG) Presents "Politics, Race, and Propaganda: The Nazi Olympics, Berlin 1936"
At The California African American Museum

Los Angeles— The SCCOG has partnered with the California African American Museum and the Foundation for Global Sports Development to participate in the museum’s fall season of exhibitions. The exhibition presented by the SCCOG, entitled "Politics, Race, and Propaganda: The Nazi Olympics, Berlin 1936," will be on display from October 19, 2016 through February 26, 2017.

Admission to the California African American Museum is free to the public. The museum is located in Exposition Park, adjacent to the Coliseum and the California Science Center.

The exhibition paints a comprehensive picture of the infamous Games hosted by the Nazi Party. Despite the racist agenda of Adolf Hitler and his regime the 1936 Olympic Games are primarily associated in America with Jesse Owens winning four gold medals. Prior to the Games, a controversial proposed boycott was hotly debated due to the racial discrimination of the Nazi regime. Yet once the International Olympic Committee quelled concerns about the safety of black athletes in Nazi Germany, 18 African American athletes, including Jesse Owens, Mack Robinson, and Ralph Metcalfe, competed for the United States in Berlin.

"Politics, Race, and Propaganda: The Nazi Olympics, Berlin 1936" features historic photographs and documents, riveting films, Olympics promotional materials, and first-person accounts that tell the stories of athletes who were barred because of their ethnic heritage, those who boycotted the Games in protest, and the African Americans who competed and won a total of 14 medals, refuting the Nazi myth of “Aryan” supremacy. The exhibit is being presented in Los Angeles for the first time.

The exhibit was produced by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and is being presented in Los Angeles by the Southern California Committee for the Olympic Games and the Foundation for Global Sports Development.

About the California African American Museum
CAAM (www.caamuseum.org) explores the art, history, and culture of African Americas. Chartered by the State of California in 1977, the Museum began formal operations in 1981 and is a state-supported agency and a Smithsonian Affiliate. In addition to presenting exhibitions and public programs, CAAM houses a permanent collection of more than four thousand works of art, artifacts, and historical documents, and a publicly accessible research library containing more than twenty thousand volumes.

About the Foundation for Global Sports Development
Working closely with international sports federations, generous donors and committed athletes, The Foundation for Global Sports Development promotes sportsmanship, education, fair play and ethics among the world's youth. The Foundation gives special emphasis to groups and communities that are most in need or most underserved by current programs, including women, minorities and youth in areas where the risk of delinquency is particularly high. Visit www.globalsportsdevelopment.org to learn more.