However, in 2014,
Eric Brown, British fighter pilot and test pilot, the
Fleet Air Arm's most decorated living pilot,
[25] independently stated in a
BBC documentary "I actually witnessed Hitler shaking hands with Jesse Owens and congratulating him on what he had achieved."
[26] Additionally, an article in
The Baltimore Sun in August 1936 reported that Hitler sent Owens a commemorative inscribed cabinet photograph of himself.
[27]
In Germany, Owens was allowed to travel with and stay in the same hotels as whites, while at the time African Americans in many parts of the United States had to stay in segregated hotels.[28]During a
Manhattan ticker-tape parade along Broadway's
Canyon of Heroes in his honor, someone handed Owens a paper bag. Owens paid it little mind until the parade concluded. When he opened it up, he found the bag contained $10,000 in cash. Owens's wife Ruth later said, "And he [Owens] didn't know who was good enough to do a thing like that. And with all the excitement around, he didn't pick it up right away. He didn't pick it up until he got ready to get out of the car."
[29] After the parade, Owens was not permitted to enter through the main doors of the
Waldorf Astoria New York and instead forced to travel up to the event in a freight elevator to reach the reception honoring him.
[28][30] President
Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) never invited Jesse Owens to the White House following his triumphs at the Olympics games.
[31] While the Democrats had bid for the support of Owens, Owens rejected those overtures: as a staunch Republican, he endorsed Roosevelt's Republican opponent,
Alf Landon, in the
1936 presidential race.
[32]
Owens, who joined the
Republican Party after returning from Europe, was paid to campaign for African American votes for the Republican presidential nominee
Alf Landon in the
1936 presidential election.
[33][34] Speaking at a Republican
rally held in
Baltimore on October 9, 1936, Owens said "Some people say Hitler snubbed me. But I tell you, Hitler did not snub me. I am not knocking the President. Remember, I am not a politician, but remember that the President did not send me a message of congratulations because people said, he was too busy."
[35] Later, on October 15, 1936 Owens repeated this allegation when he addressed an audience of African American at a Republican rally in
Kansas City remarking that
"Hitler didn't snub me – it was our president who snubbed me. The president didn't even send me a telegram."
