For the 1936 Olympic Games in Nazi Germany, eighteen African Americans had to decide if they wanted to represent a country that deemed them second-class citizens, competing on the world stage before a militant Aryan society that considered them inferior beings. Yet if they stayed home, would they ever have another chance to prove their critics wrong? Based on Deborah Riley Draper's 2016 documentary, this watershed moment in sports and civil rights history is told through the stories of five remarkable athletes all but lost in the shadow of Jesse Owens: feisty Tidye Pickett from Chicago, quiet Louise Stokes, bookish Archie Williams, the wise and fierce Ralph Metcalfe, and fleet-footed Mack Robinson, who set a fine example for his younger brother Jackie.