Finding Milton: Recent Episodes
Jesse Karjalainen
A journey to uncover the truth behind a most remarkable story. This is a story about a man called Milton (a black American Phd student), a man called Emil (a Jewish-German academic) and a man called Adolf (who needs no introduction). The time and place: Heidelberg, Germany, 1932.
March 25th 1931
On this day in Alabama, one of the most notorious civil rights controversies and judicial injustices in US history was ignited in a small, no-place town called Scottsboro. The shockwaves from the case of the Scottsboro Boys reached around the world, including when Milton Wright sat down for dinner with Adolf Hitler in the town of Heidelberg.
In part 2 of looking at Milton SJ Wright's own version of the famous 1932 Heidelberg story, we look at what Hitler said and what they spoke about. This episode reveals how the sit-down dinner came about, and which black Americans the German leader had heard about.
Having secured a copy of the seemingly only digital copy of Milton SJ Wright's 1950 article (thank you Emory University Library), we finally hear him tell the now famous story about his evening with Adolf Hitler. In the first of three parts, this episode of Finding Milton explores the story according to his own words -- making it the definitive account of what happened. But, having waited 18 years to speak out publicly, is everything the truth?
Arriving in Heidelberg in the autumn of 1930, Milton SJ Wright will be entering a climate of increasing hostility and populism. Within months he find himself the direct target of attack and prejudice. At the same time, local student representatives of the NSDAP (Nazi) party are increasing their own vicious attacks through the student newspaper, Der Heidelberger Student, to attack a Jewish-German professor by the name of Emil Julius Gumbel. Their two lives begin to become intertwined from this moment on, as support for right-wing populism grows and grows.
We finally go beyond the 1942 Pittsburgh Courier article and all the conflicting third-person tellings of this story by tracking down the full article written by Dr Milton SJ Wright himself. We locate the June 1950 edition of Ebony magazine and take a first look at what is revealed about the night Milton sat down for a four-hour conversation with Hitler that five-star hotel in Heidelberg.
I this episode I dig out the original opening episode of the New World A'Coming radio show from March 1944. Created by author and broadcast journalist Roi Ottley, featuring a theme tune by Duke Ellington and the voice of radio veteran Canada Lee. Listen to the original 1940s radio play that features the extraordinary meeting between Heidelberg student Milton SJ Wright and Austrian demagogue Adolf Hitler when they met in 1932.
In this episode I uncover many of the various versions of the "Milton SJ Wright's meeting with Adolf Hitler" story that have been published over the years, including by JA Rogers and Roi Ottley. I discover a range of inconsistencies in the tale -- is it even true?? -- as well as two significant new clues in the journey to uncover the real story behind Milton's eventful dinner in 1932.
Exactly who was Milton SJ Wright and how did he end up studying in Heidelberg in the early 1930s? We follow his path from Wilberforce to Harvard, Columbia and Oxford universities, looking at why he was such pioneering black American scholar.
In 1932, the African American Phd student Milton Sj Wright went out to dinner with fraternity friends in Heidelberg, Germany. However, the evening did not go to plan. It ended with Milton sitting down for a remarkable meeting with Adolf Hitler. This was the first black person Hitler had ever spoken to far to face. The story is told in the book, 'Travellers in the Third Reich', by author Julia Boyd. But where does this story come from? And why do not all of the dots join up?
In the book 'Travellers in the Third Reich' by Julia Boyd, I discovered an intriguing story that I wanted to find out more about. But the more I dug into the story of Milton SJ Wright, an African American studying in Heidelberg, Germany, in 1932, the more questions arose. In this episode I outline how this series got started and why the mystery just grew and grew.