Jesse Owens Research Paper

In 1936, three years preceding the Second World War II the Olympic Games were in Berlin, Germany. Why is this time so important? Germany was hosting the Olympics and Hitler, “…provided extensive funding for the Berlin Games, which promised to be the largest modern Olympics to date” (History.com). Hitler wanted to show the world that the Arian race was superior to all others. The United State’s (U.S.) almost did not participate in the 1936 Games. Jewish athletes from the U.S. and other countries boycotted the Games, and along with Spain, tried to hold a “People’s Olympics,” which failed. What made these Games even more important was Jesse Owens. Jesse Owen showed that a Black man can compete with anyone and ultimately embarrassed Hitler in the process.
Jesse Owens was a Black track and field athlete from Cleveland, Ohio. It is said that Owens, “emerged as a major track talent while attending high school in Cleveland, Ohio. Later, at Ohio State University, he demonstrated…to be one of the greatest athletes in the world”

(History.com). For the Black community he was a sensation, this was during a time in America, where Black people were not as welcomed as they are today. Owens along with 17 other African American athletes would go to the 1936 Olympic Games to represent the US, though Owens would become the most memorable of all. However, Owens was not the only Black hero to represent the US and better yet the Black community, Joe Lewis who fought Max Schelling June of 1963, also became a great success.
The Olympic Games that year, in the eyes of Hitler were meant to, “support his belief that the German "Aryan" people were the dominant race” (jesseowens.com). How wrong Hitler would find himself to be. Owens would go on to win not one but four gold medals, in the 200m, Long Jump, 100m, and 4x100 relay. Owens would not only become a hero for the Black community back home, but the German people too. It was not just the fact that Owens was an American but, that he was a Black male too. A Black male who represented the US, a country still strife with racism and segregation issues at that time.
There is a picture of Jesse Owens standing on a podium with his gold medal for the long jump. On his left is the German athlete Luz Long, and on his right right the Japanese athlete Naoto Tajima. This picture is important because it has three of the nations that would be involved in World War II, two of the nation the U.S. would fight against and ultimately defeat. The Japanese athlete Tajima, is standing with his hands to his side, Long the German Athlete is holding the infamous Nazi solute, with his left hand at his side and his right in the air at a 30-degree angle form his chest. Owens is in the center of the two holding the U.S. military solute with his left hand at his side and his right across the forehead, probably facing an American Flag. Along with Long, the crowd in the back round are all holding the Nazi solute. This picture symbolizes the difference in the three countries along with the men themselves. When the Games ended they would all go back home. Life’s would resume; for some not as pleasant as for others. The picture is also an insult for Hitler, not only did the German athlete not win but he lost to a Black athlete from the U.S.
Some said the Hitler ‘snubbed,’ Owens because he was a Black athlete and embarrassed Hitler because he dominated at the Games. But, this is untrue. The Pittsburgh Press quotes Owens as saying,
“Hitler had a certain time to come to the stadium and a certain time to leave. It happened that he had to leave before the victory ceremony after the 100 meters. But before he left I was on my way to a broadcast and passed his box. He waved at me and I waved back. I think it was bad taste to criticize the ‘man of the hour’ in another country”

Owens had no significant problems in Germany.

However, when he went back home to the US, the country he had just represented. He was still not welcomed because the color of his skin. In the picture Owens is wearing a USA sweater, red, blue and white. The colors of the free nation. But, not as free a people would believe it to be. The picture not only stands for a fight against Hitler and his Nazi antics but the US and their discrimination and hatred towards Black people. Owens said, “[w]hen I came back to my native country, after all the stories about Hitler, I couldn't ride in the front of the bus, I had to go to the back door. I couldn't live where I wanted. I wasn't invited to shake hands with Hitler, but I wasn't invited to the White House to shake hands with the President, either” (espn.com). At the end of the day Owens was still a Black man in a White world, all his hard work and accomplishments would get him nothing from the White

man.
In 1936 the US was not much different than Germany. There was still racism, hatred, and bigotry. The Black citizens were not equal to the white citizen, and no matter how famous or rich you were as a Black person, the White man still had privileges that Black people would never have. Making it to the Olympic was and never will be a small ordeal. What Jesse Owens proved during the 1936 Olympics, is that a Black man can excel in sports and look good while doing it. He did all of this while fighting against discrimination, racism, and hatred based on the color of his own skin. The picture is a symbol for all young Black boys and girls. It reminders us that anything is possible even when all odds are against us. It speaks to Owens eminence that 8o years latter the Black community still see value the impact Owens hand on the world and feeds off of it. Everything the great Jesse Owens did in 1936 at the Olympic in Berlin, Germany, will forever be commendable.