Jesse Owens Character Traits

Sam Culleton
March 9, 2014
Research paper Jesse Owens was a very important man. He was amazing at track and went to the Olympics. He was the best in college. Even though his childhood was not really good. Jesse Owens was born on September 12 1913. He was born in Oakville, Alabama and was born with the name James. Jesse had nine siblings. His family was very poor. They were all sharecroppers which means they were owned by white people but got little money. Even the kids and to help do the job. Every Winter Jesse would get pneumonia and had to work through it. Also every year he would get a big bump. One time it got so big his mom had to get a knife and cut it off. When Jesse was nine hid father found out that the landlord was cheating them out of their money. So once they had enough money, they moved to Ohio. His father found better work there and so did a lot of his family members. Jesse had trouble in school there. On his first day, his teacher asked him what his name was and he said his nickname which was J.C. but with his southern accent it sounded like he said Jesse. That name stuck with him for the rest of his life. When Jesse was in the fifth grade, the track teacher there saw him running and asked him to join the track team.

Before the Olympics he said “One chance is all you need.” (4) There he won four gold medals. He won the 100 meter dash, the long jump, the 200 meter dash, and the 400 meter dash. Two of those events broke Olympic records. In the Olympics seven of the eleven medals won by the United States were won by african Americans. After the Olympics were over, Jesse came home and said “When I came back to my native country, after all the stories of Hitler, I could not ride in the front of the bus, I had to go to the back. I could not live where I wanted. I was not invited to shake hands with Hitler, but I was not invited to shake hands with the President of the United States either.”