James Cleveland Owens

James Cleveland “Jesse” Owens, is a track and field runner who competed at the 1936 Summer Olympics, which were held in Berlin, Germany. At the time, Adolf Hitler was already in power and began to take over Germany. Hitler discriminated all who weren’t Aryan Germans, germans with blue eyes and blond hair, or to him the perfect race. Hosting the Olympics that year Hitler believed that he and his people, the Germans, were going to dominate the Olympics. However, Owens, a black African-American athlete, surprised Hitler and the world when he won not only one but four gold medals in the games. Owens, at the time, proved to Hitler that the Aryan’s are not the perfect race, as well as proved to Americans that one's skin color does not define them. He proved that individual excellence and prosperity is based on an individual's determination not race or culture.
Owens later explained how when he returned home he was failed to be recognized for his outstanding athleticism and performance in the Summer Olympics.
"When I came back to my native country, after all the stories about Hitler, I couldn't ride in the front of the bus," he said. "I had to go to the back door. I couldn't live where I wanted. I wasn't invited to shake hands with
Owens is the son of a sharecropper and grandson of a slave. Starting from the young age of seven he was expected to work, as well as get an education at the same time. Moreover, all the hard labor and malnutrition evidently led to Owens being very sick often. At the age of nine, Owens moved to Cleveland with his family and attended East Technical High School, where he was first introduced to the sport of track and field. Due to the fact that he had to support his family, he would work after school, yet wake up every morning and train before school. After graduating high school, Owens attended Ohio State University where he continued training and improving as an