Jesse Owens
Columbus, Ohio 43210, United States
Jesse studied at Ohio State University.
Columbus, Ohio 43210, United States
Jesse studied at Ohio State University.
Columbus, Ohio 43210, United States
Jesse studied at Ohio State University.
1936
Jesse Owens
1936
Berlin, Germany
Owens displaying excellent form during his victory in the long jump at the Berlin Olympics.
1936
Berlin, Germany
Owens salutes the American flag after winning the long jump at the Summer Olympics. Naoto Tajima, Owens, Lutz Long.
1936
Berlin, Germany
Owens, here atop the medal stand for the 100 meters with silver medalist Metcalfe of the U.S. (right) and bronze medalist Martinus Osendarp of Holland, ran and jumped his way into sporting immortality before a world audience.
1936
Berlin, Germany
Pictured above are the members of the American relay team which won the 400-meter relay race at the Olympics in Berin. They Bettered the world and the Olympic records at 0:39.8. Left to right: Jesse Owens, Ralph Metcalfe, Foy Draper, and Frank Wykoff.
1936
Waterloo Rd, Lambeth, London SE1 8SW, United Kingdom
The American Athlete Jesse Owens At London'S Waterloo Train Station. After His Success At The Olympic Games Of Berlin, The Athlete Gained, By Train, The Queen Mary Liner Which Brought Him Back To The United States.
1936
A picture of the top American athlete Jesse Owens starting a race, The picture is a composite image of him (from left) crouching ready to start then setting off and the next two are of him rising through the start.
1938
Jesse James Cleveland Owens on the left, an American athlete, the greatest sprinter of his generation who won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, pictured here with Ralph Metcalfe.
1924
Paris, France
While Owens remained back home in Ohio, Peacock blazed a trail through Europe with a group of U.S. athletes, here winning a 100-meters race in the same stadium that had hosted Olympics.
1935
Lincoln, Nebraska, United States
Peacock (left), a virtual unknown at the time, swept past prerace favorite Owens (Ohio jersey) and Metcalfe (second from right) for a landmark victory.
1935
Washington, D.C., United States
Heavyweight boxer Joe Louis puts his arm around Jesse Owens, Ohio State University track star and holder of three world's records. They were introduced during a boxing program sponsored by the Colored Elks.
1935
African-American athlete Jesse Owens fills up a car at a petrol station in his a uniform of cap, shirt and bow tie. Owens worked as a petrol pump attendant to help finance his studies at Ohio State University.
1936
Jesse Owens
1936
Berlin, Germany
Owens displaying excellent form during his victory in the long jump at the Berlin Olympics.
1936
Berlin, Germany
Owens salutes the American flag after winning the long jump at the Summer Olympics. Naoto Tajima, Owens, Lutz Long.
1936
Berlin, Germany
Owens, here atop the medal stand for the 100 meters with silver medalist Metcalfe of the U.S. (right) and bronze medalist Martinus Osendarp of Holland, ran and jumped his way into sporting immortality before a world audience.
1936
Berlin, Germany
Jesse Owens at the Olympic.
1936
Berlin, Germany
American track and field competitors Jesse Owens (l) and Dave Albritton eat dinner in the Olympic Village.
1936
Berlin, Germany
Pictured above are the members of the American relay team which won the 400-meter relay race at the Olympics in Berin. They Bettered the world and the Olympic records at 0:39.8. Left to right: Jesse Owens, Ralph Metcalfe, Foy Draper, and Frank Wykoff.
1936
Waterloo Rd, Lambeth, London SE1 8SW, United Kingdom
The American Athlete Jesse Owens At London'S Waterloo Train Station. After His Success At The Olympic Games Of Berlin, The Athlete Gained, By Train, The Queen Mary Liner Which Brought Him Back To The United States.
1936
A picture of the top American athlete Jesse Owens starting a race, The picture is a composite image of him (from left) crouching ready to start then setting off and the next two are of him rising through the start.
1936
Berlin, Germany
Men's Long Jump, USA's gold-medalist Jesse Owens talks to German silver medallist Luz Long.
1936
Berlin, Germany
Jesse Owens, US-American track and field athlete, won 4 gold medals at the Summer Olympics in Berlin in 1936, Summer Olympics in Berlin in August 1936.
1938
Jesse James Cleveland Owens on the left, an American athlete, the greatest sprinter of his generation who won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, pictured here with Ralph Metcalfe.
1950
American track and field athlete Jesse Owens smiles as he poses with the four gold medals he won at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
1971
Owens on a UAE stamp
2015
Berlin, Germany
Photograph of Jesse Owens' room in the 1936 Olympic Village.
Minnie Ruth Solomon and Jesse Owens
Columbus, Ohio 43210, United States
Jesse studied at Ohio State University.
Columbus, Ohio 43210, United States
Jesse studied at Ohio State University.
Jesse Owens
Columbus, Ohio 43210, United States
Jesse studied at Ohio State University.
Minnie Ruth Solomon and Jesse Owens
The ever-gracious Owens (left) congratulated Peacock after the Temple star’s stunning double upset.
The Buffalo Courier-Express touted the race result, along with a photo of Owens and Peacock upon their arrival at Crystal Beach.
Moments after injuring his left hamstring during a race in Milan, Peacock was carried from the track by Italian officials and American hurdler Tom Moore.
New York, United States
After failing to make the U.S. Olympic team at the regional trials in Boston, Peacock got one last chance in New York. Though his form was good in this practice start on the track at Randall’s Island, Peacock would hobble home last in the qualifying race.
(Autobiography of the Negro track star who was awarded fou...)
Autobiography of the Negro track star who was awarded four gold medals at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.
https://www.amazon.com/Jesse-Owens-Story/dp/0399603158
1970
https://www.amazon.com/Blackthink-Life-Black-Man-White/dp/0688011632
1970
https://www.amazon.com/Jesse-spiritual-autobiography-31-May-1905-Hardcover/dp/B013J92MEA
1978
James Cleveland Owens was born in Oakville, Alabama, United States, on September 12, 1913, the son of a sharecropper. He was a sickly child, often too frail to help his father and brothers in the fields. The family moved to Cleveland, Ohio, in 1921. There was little improvement in their life.
Moving to Cleveland he entered public school, where a teacher accidently wrote down his name as "Jesse" instead of J. C. When Jesse was in the fifth grade, the athletic supervisor asked him to go out for track. From a spindly boy he developed into a strong runner. In junior high school he set a record for the 100-yard dash. In high school in 1933 he won the 100-yard dash, the 200-yard dash, and the broad jump in the National Interscholastic Championships.
Owens finally agreed to enter Ohio State University in Columbus after officials found employment for his father.
In addition to his studies and participating in track, Owens worked three jobs to pay his tuition. At the "Big Ten" track and field championships (at the University of Michigan) in 1935, he broke three world records and tied another. His 26 foot 8 1/4 inch broad jump set a record that was not broken for 25 years. Owens was a member of the 1936 U. S. Olympic team competing in Berlin. The African-American members of the squad faced the challenges not only of competition but also of Hitler's boasts of Aryan supremacy. Owens won a total of four gold medals at the Olympic games. As a stunned Hitler angrily left the stadium, German athletes embraced Owens and the spectators chanted his name.
He returned to America to a hero's welcome, honored at a ticker tape parade in New York. Owens took work as a playground supervisor, but was soon approached by promoters who wanted to pit him against race horses and cars. In 1937 Owens lent his name to a chain of cleaning shops. They prospered until 1939, when the partners fled, leaving Owens a bankrupt business and heavy debts.
He found employment with the Office of Civilian Defense in Philadelphia (1940 - 1942) as national director of physical education for African-Americans. From 1942 to 1946 he was director of minority employment at Ford Motor Company in Detroit. He later became a sales executive for a Chicago sporting goods company. In 1951 Owens accompanied the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team to Berlin at the invitation of the U. S. High Commission and the Army.
He was appointed secretary of the Illinois Athletic Commission (1952 - 1955), and was sent on a global goodwill tour as ambassador of sport for the United States. Also in 1955, he was appointed to the Illinois Youth Commission. In 1956 he organized the Junior Olympic Games for youngsters in Chicago between the ages of 12 and 17. Owens and his friend Joe Louis were active in helping black youth. Owens headed his own public relations firm in Chicago and for several years had a jazz program on Chicago radio.
He traveled throughout America and abroad, lecturing youth groups. In the 1970 Owens moved his business from Chicago to Phoenix, but as time progressed, his health deteriorated. He died of cancer on March 31, 1980, after a lengthy stay in a Phoenix hospital.
He became the hero of the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, as his series of victories scored a moral victory for black athletes (won four gold medals: 100 meters, 200 meters, long jump, and 4 × 100 meter relay). Racism denied Owens the financial fruits of his victory after the 1936 games, but his triumph in what has been called the most important sports story of the century, continued to be an inspiration for modern day Olympians such as track stars Michael Johnson and Carl Lewis.
Forty years after he won his gold medals, Owens was finally invited to the White House to accept a Medal of Freedom from President Gerald Ford. The following year, the Jesse Owens International Trophy for amateur athletes was established. In 1979, President Jimmy Carter honored Owens with a Living Legend Award. The highest honor Owens received came a full ten years after his death. Congressman Louis Stokes from Cleveland lobbied tirelessly to earn Owens a Congressional Gold Medal. The award was finally given to Owens's widow by President Bush in 1990.
(Autobiography of the Negro track star who was awarded fou...)
1970Religion was a constant for the Owens family. They were devout Baptists, regular congregants at the Oakville Missionary Baptist Church.
Owens joined the Republican Party and was paid to campaign for African American votes for the Republican presidential nominee Alf Landon in the 1936 presidential election.
Ideologically moderate, Owens admired Martin Luther King, Jr.
Quotations:
"The battles that count aren't the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself — the invisible, inevitable battles inside all of us — that's where it's at."
"I had four gold medals, but you can't eat four gold medals. There was no television, no big advertising, no endorsements then. Not for a black man, anyway."
"Hitler didn't snub me; it was our president who snubbed me. The president didn't even send me a telegram."
Physical Characteristics: His height was 5 ft 10 3⁄4 in (180 cm).
Quotes from others about the person
"The real snub of Owens came from his own president. Even after ticker-tape parades for Owens in New York City and Cleveland, President Franklin D. Roosevelt never publicly acknowledged Owens' achievements. Gold in the 100 meter, 200 meter, 400 meter relay, and long jump. Owens was never invited to the White House and never even received a letter of congratulations from the president. Almost two decades passed before another American president, Dwight D. Eisenhower, honored Owens by naming him 'Ambassador of Sports'. In 1955."
"German Myth 10: The 1936 Berlin Olympics, Hitler, and Jesse Owens" (10 June 2004), German Misnomers, Myths and Mistakes, About, Inc
President Bush called Owens "an Olympic hero and an American hero every day of his life."
He married his high school sweetheart Minnie Ruth Solomon in 1935, after years of dating. The couple was blessed with three daughters, one before marriage in 1932 and two later, in 1939 and 1940, respectively.
