The Olympic Games have never been immune from politics, and they certainly weren’t in 1936, when Berlin was the host city and Hitler sought to present the Third Reich in a flattering light. That the United States thwarted him is largely because of the black athletes who receive their due in Deborah Riley Draper’s deft and comprehensive documentary “Olympic Pride, American Prejudice.” As the movie makes clear, racial politics played a major role, both domestically and abroad.
The film documents the efforts of the N.A.A.C.P. and Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia of New York, among others, to boycott the Games.