#27: ‘In Black and White’ by Donald McRae

‘In Black and White – The Untold Story of Joe Louis and Jesse Owens’ by Donald McRae is a brilliantly deep and thorough exploration of the tandem sporting careers and eventual friendship of sporting legends, boxer Joe Louis, and athletics all-rounder Jesse Owens.

If you’ve read my previous posts you’ll know just how highly I hold the writing talents of Donald McRae, so I won’t gush too much in this post, except to say that this book is as equally detailed and full of information as his other books, whilst retaining the same excellently flowing prose style.

From excelling as amateurs (or college athlete in Owens’ case), to being used as propaganda tools by defying prominent Nazis (Owens winning four gold medals at the Berlin Olympics in front of Hitler in 1936, and Louis badly beating Max Schmelling two years later), and becoming world champions, there were some incredible parallels in the sporting careers of the two giants of their respective sports. All of their achievements are of course put into context in this book, against the backdrop of being African Americans at a time of segregation and oppression.

Unfortunately books about boxing have sad endings, and this one is no different, as it is necessary to examine the treatment of both athletes by the US government and society in general, and how both, for different reasons, struggled financially later in life. Both were also later vilified by some during the civil rights movement in America – this is a complicated and layered issue, so I’m not passing judgement in this post; rather, I just think it’s sad that their achievements were rejected out-of-hand by some athletes competing in different times.