Black American athlete who won gold was one of the 1924 Paris Olympics’ firsts
College track and field star William DeHart Hubbard took a dramatic leap forward at the 1924 Paris Olympics for Black people back home in the segregated U.S.
PARIS — A century ago, at a small stadium just outside Paris, a college track and field star from Ohio named William DeHart Hubbard took a dramatic leap forward for himself and for all African Americans back home in the segregated United States of America.
By defeating the best long jumpers in the world at the 1924 Paris Olympics, Hubbard became the first Black athlete to win an individual gold medal at the Games.
Hubbard’s nephew Kenneth Blackwell, the former secretary of state of Ohio, told NBC News his uncle recognized that he was carrying the hopes and dreams of millions of Black Americans on his muscular frame when he raced down a track toward a sand pit and leaped into history.
“He wrote his mother a letter that I now have framed, and the letter simply said that he was going across the ocean to become the first Negro to win an Olympic medal in track and field, to make her proud, but also to show there are no boundaries that cannot be broken,” said Blackwell, who was once mayor of Hubbard’s hometown, Cincinnati.
Stream every moment and every medal of the 2024 Paris Olympics on Peacock, starting with the Opening Ceremony July 26 at 12 p.m. ET.
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