The World War I And The Soviet Union - 1696 Words

The intermission between the two world wars was fraught with the rise of militaristic, dictatorial factions in Germany, Spain, Italy, Japan, and the Soviet Union. By the time the Olympic torch was lit in Berlin in 1936, all of these nations were either firmly under the grasp of an authoritarian regime or engaged in a civil war destined to be quickly dominated by a fascist party. In response to both the advance of authoritarianism abroad and the horrors of World War I, the United States more ambitiously pursued isolationism as the solution to international affairs. As the country focused more on domestic issues because of both the swelling isolationist sentiment and eventually the Great Depression, the racial boundaries created by the†¦show more content†¦In the 1936 Summer Olympic games in Berlin, Jesse Owens sizably undermined the idealism of Aryan dominance, carrying the African American community to an unprecedented level of honor. The American icon was able to succes sfully alter racial tensions by growing out of the sharecropping industry, creating new opportunities for blacks in sports, shattering world records and German hopes, bringing honor to the black community, and receiving national recognition throughout his lifetime. By escaping the harsh sharecropping industry, Jesse Owens embodied the vision of African American freedom. Owens grew up poor; his family constantly had to scrap minimal amounts of nutrition to survive while living in a small shack in the fields in Oakville, Alabama. Jesse’s mother, Emma Owens, believed that the family should look for a new life in the North and the family awaited their future after a train ride to Cleveland, where Jesse would begin his case for superstardom (Schaap). At the time of the Owens departure, blacks around the nation sought to engage in opportunities in the North due to the fading success of the sharecropping industry. Growing out of this hardship, the Owens family became recognized as nationwide icons and gave needed morale to the black community whose individuals often found themselves struggling to leave the sharecropping industry. Although Henry Owens was unable to find a steady employer, Jesse’s