At the 1936 Olympics, 18 black athletes went to Berlin as part of the U.S. team. Pictured here are (left to right rear) Dave Albritton, and Cornelius Johnson, high jumpers; Tidye Pickett, a hurdler; Ralph Metcalfe, a sprinter; Jim Clark, a boxer, and Mack Robinson, a sprinter. In front are John Terry, (left) a weight lifter and John Brooks, a long jumper. Bettmann Archive/Getty Images
There were eighteen African-American athletes on the U.S. Team in the 1936 Olympic Games held in Berlin, Germany. They won 14 medals — eight of them gold: a quarter of the 56 medals won by the entire U.S. team. Most of them have been all but forgotten.
Shortly after midnight on this day in 1961, East German soldiers begin laying down barbed wire and bricks as a barrier between Soviet-controlled East Berlin and the democratic western section of the city.