Jesse Owens

Jesse Owens is a hero to all of us but especially the African-American community. His determination and will power led the way to a successful track career. He paved the way for many black athletes and instilled the message to us all that no matter what obstacles stand in the way hard work and desire to be great will take you wherever you want to go.
James Cleveland Owens (Jesse) was born September 12, 1913 in Oakville, Alabama. He was the seventh of eleven kids and was later nicknamed J.C. after moving to Cleveland, Ohio. Due to his southern accent while his teacher was taking role on the first day when saying his name was J.C. she misunderstood and heard the name Jesse which stuck with him for his entire life. In junior high school while working at a shoe repair shop, he realized he had a strong passion for running. He was a track star all through high school and set many school records and even some world records! He then graduated high school and attended Ohio State University. Although he was an incredible student athlete, he wasn’t offered a scholarship because of the color of his skin and had to work his way doing any job he could to pay his tuition. He broke many school and world records there an earned himself a trip to the 1936 Olympics in Berlin Germany.

Although Jesse was an incredible athlete Hitler’s Nazi Party were convinced their German Olympians would dominate and no “inferior race” could come close to the excellence of their Aryan athletes. Prior to the events Adi Dassler persuaded him to use shoes from the company he found, Adidas. This was the first sponsorship for an African-American athlete in history. Jesse Owens took the world by surprise when he dominated the track events by winning 4 gold medals. Hitler still only shook the hands of the German victors. But it wasn’t Hitler that Jesse was offended by. It was the actions of Franklin D. Roosevelt when he didn’t even bother to send the champ a telegram or formally recognize his success. He wasn’t recognized by any U.S. officials until Dwight Eisenhower labeled him as an “ambassador to sports”.


After the games were over, the entire U.S. team was invited to compete in Sweden but Owens declined and therefore lost his amateur status. He and his family were struggling financially and he began to use his speed and agility for promoting purposes such as racing horses, giving younger runners outrageous head starts and coming from behind and beating them and became a fairly successful entertainer. He once stated “People say it was degrading for an Olympic champion to run against a horse, but what was I supposed to do? I had four gold medals, but you can’t eat four gold medals”. He soon after discovered himself in an even deeper hole, filing for bankruptcy, running a dry cleaning business and working as a gas station attendant. He soon after started traveling the country as a U.S. “Goodwill Ambassador” speaking at such places The Ford Motor Company and The United States Olympic Committee. As he grew old he spent a lot of time racing horses and stressing the importance of good ethics in life. After 35 years of smoking, Owens died at age 66 from lung cancer, leaving in Tucson, Arizona his 3 daughters and wife Minnie.

SOURCES
http://cdn.bleacherreport.com/images_root/slideshows/566/slideshow_56651/display_image.jpg http://www.ecopolis.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/jesse-owens.jpg
http://postalmuseum.si.edu/tt/images/2.jpg