Jesse Owens Thesis

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Recommended: Racism in Sports in the 1940's-1950's

Jesse Owens was born on September 17 1913 in Oakville Alabama. As a youngster he was a grandson of a slave so he had to plant cotton and do other jobs because of the color of his skin. But what if Jesse turned his life around to do such an amazing and so memorable career. Jesse moved to cleveland when he was about 9. He moved to get away from slavery. Jesse had very major health issues as a kid. He always had issues with Pneumonia and Chronic bronchial congestion. It was not till he had a huge bump on his chest that would not stop swelling. But Jesse is just a nickname for his official name is James Cleveland. But people just called him J.C. When on one of the first days at his school at Cleveland, his teacher asked for his name, and he said his nickname J.C. But the teacher thought he said Jesse with his accent, so the name Jesse stuck. So that is how the name Jessie was started. He was one of six brothers and he also had three sisters! His parents were Emma and Henry Owens who were two loving parents. When he was in Junior high he was shattering records and that's when he realized that's what he needs to do. …show more content…

He obviously took the scholarship. He shined at Ohio State. He was so good and he destroyed everyone. In 1935 at the Big Ten championships he too first in all four of his events. He did so good that he got to go to the Olympic time trials. He made it to the 1936 Olympics in Berlin Germany under racist Nazi rule. He gets there getting called very racist names. Hitler protested that he could compete. But the Olympic committee obviously allowed him. In his only four events he competed in he got gold! He deleted all of the odds to defeat everyone in his path. Coming back he gave America a sense of power and hope that they could beat the awful Nazi and Hitler. And they did. So in a way Jesse Owens helped the USA get fuel to beat the

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