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Jesse Owens

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James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens (September 12, 1913 – March 31, 1980) was an American track and field athlete who made history at the 1936 Olympic Games by becoming the first person to win four gold medals in a single Olympics.<ref name=":3">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He is widely regarded as one of the greatest athletes in track and field history.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Owens excelled in events like short sprints and the long jump and was recognized in his lifetime as "perhaps the greatest and most famous athlete in track and field history".<ref>Template:Citation</ref> He won four events and set five world records and tied another, all in less than an hour, at the 1935 Big Ten Championships in Ann Arbor, Michigan, a feat that has never been equaled and has been called "the greatest 45 minutes ever in sport".<ref name="si_45_minutes">Template:Cite magazine</ref> He won four NCAA titles in both 1935 and 1936, bringing his total to eight—an unparalleled achievement that remains unmatched to this day.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

He achieved international fame at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany, by winning four gold medals: 100 meters, long jump, 200 meters, and 4 × 100-meter relay. He was the most successful athlete at the Games and, as a black American man, was credited by ESPN with "single-handedly crushing Hitler's myth of Aryan supremacy".<ref name=Schwartz>Template:Cite web</ref>

The Jesse Owens Award is USA Track & Field's highest accolade for the year's best track and field athlete.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In a 1950 Associated Press poll, Owens was voted the greatest track and field athlete for the first half of the century.<ref name=":5">Template:Cite web</ref> In 1999, he was on the six-man short-list for the BBC's Sports Personality of the Century.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> That same year, he was ranked the sixth greatest North American athlete of the twentieth century and the highest-ranked in his sport by ESPN.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Early life and education

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Jesse Owens, originally known as J. C., was the youngest of ten children (three girls and seven boys) born to Henry Cleveland Owens [1881–1942] (a sharecropper) and Mary Emma Fitzgerald in Oakville, Alabama, on September 12, 1913. He was the grandson of a slave.<ref name=":3" /> At the age of nine, he and his family moved to Cleveland, Ohio for better opportunities as part of the Great Migration (1910–40) when 1.6 million African Americans left the segregated and rural South for the urban and industrial North. When his new teacher asked his name to enter in her roll book, he said "J. C.", but because of his strong Southern accent, she thought he said "Jesse". The name stuck, and he was known as Jesse Owens for the rest of his life.<ref>Baker, William J. Jesse Owens – An American Life, p. 19.</ref>

In his younger years, Owens took different menial jobs in his spare time: he delivered groceries, loaded freight cars, and worked in a shoe repair shop while his father and older brother worked at a steel mill.<ref name="jobio22">Template:Cite web</ref> During this period, Owens realized that he had a passion for running. Throughout his life, Owens attributed the success of his athletic career to the encouragement of Charles Riley, his junior high school track coach at Fairmount Junior High School. Since Owens worked after school, Riley allowed him to practice before school instead.

Owens and Minnie Ruth Solomon (1915–2001) met at Fairmont Junior High School in Cleveland when he was 15 and she was 13. They dated steadily through high school. Ruth gave birth to their first daughter Gloria in 1932. They married on July 5, 1935, and had two more daughters together: Marlene, born in 1937, and Beverly, born in 1940. They remained married until his death in 1980.<ref>Template:Cite web. library.osu.edu</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Owens first came to national attention when he was a student of East Technical High School in Cleveland; he equaled the world record of 9.4 seconds in the Template:Convert dash, broke the national high school record with 20.7 seconds in the 220 yards (201 m) dash, and long-jumped Template:Convert at the 1933 National High School Championship in Chicago.<ref name=jocom>Template:Cite web</ref> His 100-yard dash remained the national high school record until 1967, while his 200-yard dash held the national record for 20 years.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Career

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Ohio State University

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Owens attended Ohio State University after his father found employment, which ensured that the family could be supported.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Affectionately known as the "Buckeye Bullet" and under the coaching of Larry Snyder, Owens won a record eight individual NCAA championships, four each in 1935 and 1936.<ref name="si_45_minutes"/> His career total of eight individual NCAA titles remains the most, despite only two years of Varsity competition—which included an undefeated junior year in 1936 where he won all 42 events he entered.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Though Owens enjoyed athletic success, he had to live off campus with other African-American athletes. When he traveled with the team, Owens was restricted to ordering carry-out or eating at "blacks-only" restaurants. Similarly, he had to stay at "blacks-only" hotels. Owens did not receive a scholarship for his efforts, so he continued to work part-time jobs to pay for school.<ref>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Cbignore</ref>

Day of days

May 25, 1935, is remembered as the day when Jesse Owens won four events and established six world records in athletics at the Big Ten Championships.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On that day, Owens battled through a lower back injury and set five world records and tied a sixth in a span of 45 minutes from 3:15–4 p.m. during the Big Ten meet at Ferry Field in Ann Arbor, Michigan.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He equaled the world record for the 100-yard dash (9.4 seconds) (not to be confused with the 100-meter dash), and set world records in the long jump (Template:Convert, a world record that would last for 25 years); Template:Convert sprint (20.3 seconds); and 220-yard low hurdles (22.6 seconds, becoming the first to break 23 seconds).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Both 220-yard records had also beaten the metric records for 200 meters (flat and hurdles), which counted as two additional world records from the same performances.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=Schwartz/> In 2005, University of Central Florida professor of sports history Richard C. Crepeau chose these wins on one day as the most impressive athletic achievement since 1850.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

1936 Big Ten Championships

At the 1936 Big Ten Championships, Owens dominated the competition, winning the long jump, 100-yard dash, 220-yard dash, and 100-yard low hurdles. With these victories, he concluded his Big Ten Championship career undefeated—nine titles in nine events.Template:Efn<ref name=":8" />

USA Track and Field Championships

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At the 1934 USA Indoor Track and Field Championships, Owens captured the long jump gold with a world-record leap of 25 feet, 3⅛ inches.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Two years later, at his final appearance at the Outdoor Championships in 1936, he shattered the long jump world record once again with a remarkable jump of 26 feet, 8¼ inches. That same meet, he also set a new championship record in the 100 meters, clocking in at 10.4 seconds.<ref>Template:Cite AV media</ref> Over the course of his career at these championships, Owens amassed a total of six gold medals—five in the long jump and one in the 100 meters.<ref name=":9" />

1936 Berlin Summer Olympics

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File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R96374, Berlin, Olympiade, Jesse Owens beim Weitsprung crop.jpg
Owens competing in the long jump at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin

On December 4, 1935, NAACP Secretary Walter Francis White wrote a letter to Owens, but never sent it.<ref>"NAACP: A Century in the Fight for Freedom". NAACP Collection, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (082.00.00),</ref> He was trying to dissuade Owens from taking part in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Nazi Germany, arguing that an African American should not promote a racist regime after what his race had suffered at the hands of racists in his own country. In the months prior to the Games, a movement gained momentum in favor of a boycott. Owens was convinced by the NAACP to declare: "If there are minorities in Germany who are being discriminated against, the United States should withdraw from the 1936 Olympics". Yet he and others eventually took part after Avery Brundage, president of the American Olympic Committee branded them "un-American agitators".<ref>"American Experience, Jesse Owens" Template:Webarchive. PBS</ref>

File:Olympic Village house of Jesse Owens.jpg
2015 photograph of the U.S. track team house at the 1936 Berlin Olympic Village
File:Jesse Owen's Room in Berlin 1936 Olympic Village.jpg
2015 photograph of Jesse Owens's room in the 1936 Olympic Village in Berlin

In 1936, Owens and his United States teammates sailed on the SS Manhattan and arrived in Germany to compete at the Summer Olympics in Berlin. Just before the competitions, founder of Adidas athletic shoe company Adi Dassler visited Owens in the Olympic village and persuaded Owens to wear Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik shoes; this was the first sponsorship for a male African American athlete.<ref name="rediff">Template:Cite web</ref>

On August 3, Owens won the 100 m dash<ref>Template:Cite webTemplate:Cbignore</ref> with a time of 10.3 seconds, defeating a teammate and a college friend<ref name="Edmondson"/> Ralph Metcalfe by a tenth of a second and defeating Tinus Osendarp of the Netherlands by two-tenths of a second.

On August 4, he won the long jump with a leap of Template:Convert (3¼ inches short of his own world record). He initially credited this achievement to the technical advice that he received from Luz Long, the German competitor whom he defeated,<ref name="Schwartz" /> but later admitted that this was not true, as he and Long did not meet until after the competition was over.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

On August 5, he won the 200 meter sprint with a time of 20.7 seconds, defeating fellow American teammate Mack Robinson (the older brother of Jackie Robinson).

On August 9, Owens won his fourth gold medal in the 4 × 100 m sprint relay when head coach Lawson Robertson replaced Jewish-American sprinters Marty Glickman and Sam Stoller with Owens and Ralph Metcalfe,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> who teamed with Frank Wykoff and Foy Draper to set a world record of 39.8 seconds in the event.<ref>PBS: American Experience. Jessie Owens. Template:Webarchive (Accessed: May 2, 2012)</ref> Owens had initially protested the last-minute switch, but assistant coach Dean Cromwell said to him, "You'll do as you are told."Template:Citation needed Owens's record-breaking performance of four gold medals was not equaled until Carl Lewis won gold medals in the same events at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Owens had set the world record in the long jump with a leap of Template:Convert in 1935, the year before the Berlin Olympics, and this record stood for 25 years until it was broken in 1960 by countryman Ralph Boston. Coincidentally, Owens was a spectator at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome when Boston took the gold medal in the long jump.

The long-jump victory is documented, along with many other 1936 events, in the 1938 film Olympia by Leni Riefenstahl. On August 1, 1936, Nazi Germany's leader, Adolf Hitler, shook hands with the German victors only and then left the stadium. International Olympic Committee president Henri de Baillet-Latour insisted that Hitler greet every medalist or none at all. Hitler opted for the latter and skipped all further medal presentations.<ref>Berlin Games: How Hitler Stole the Olympic Dream (2012) Guy Walters, Hachette UK Template:ISBN</ref><ref>Rick Shenkman, Adolf Hitler, Jesse Owens and the Olympics Myth of 1936 February 13, 2002, from History News Network (article excerpted from Rick Shenkman's Legends, Lies and Cherished Myths of American History, William Morrow & Co, 1988 Template:ISBN)</ref>

Owens ran his first race on Day 2 of the Olympics (August 2). That day, He ran in the first (10:30 a.m.) and second (3:00 p.m.) qualifying rounds for the 100-meter final. He tied the Olympic and world record in the first race and broke them in the second race, but the new time was not recognized, because it was wind-assisted.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Later the same day, Owens's African-American team-mate Cornelius Johnson won gold in the high jump final (which began at 5:00 p.m.) with a new Olympic record of 2.03 meters.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Hitler did not publicly congratulate any of the medal winners this time; even so, the communist New York City newspaper the Daily Worker claimed Hitler received all the track winners except Johnson and left the stadium as a "deliberate snub" after watching Johnson's winning jump.<ref>Template:Cite news A copy of this newspaper is available on the website Fulton History and can be located with a simple word search.</ref> Hitler was subsequently accused of failing to acknowledge Owens (who won gold medals on August 3, 4 (two), and 9) or shake his hand. Owens responded to these claims at the time:

Hitler had a certain time to come to the stadium and a certain time to leave. It happened he had to leave before the victory ceremony after the 100 meters [race began at 5:45 p.m.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>]. But before he left I was on my way to a broadcast and passed near 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In an article dated August 4, 1936, the African-American newspaper editor Robert L. Vann describes witnessing Hitler "salute" Owens for having won gold in the 100 m sprint (August 3):

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File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-G00630, Sommerolympiade, Siegerehrung Weitsprung.jpg
Owens salutes the American flag after winning the long jump at the 1936 Summer Olympics. (L–R) Naoto Tajima, Owens, Luz Long.

In 2014, Eric Brown, British fighter pilot and test pilot, aged 17 in 1936 and later becoming the Fleet Air Arm's most decorated pilot,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> stated in a BBC documentary: "I actually witnessed Hitler shaking hands with Jesse Owens and congratulating him on what he had achieved".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Additionally, an article in The Baltimore Sun in August 1936 reported that Hitler sent Owens a commemorative inscribed cabinet photograph of himself.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Later, on October 15, 1936, Owens repeated this claim when he addressed an audience of African Americans at a Republican rally in Kansas City, remarking: "Hitler didn't snub me—it was our president who snubbed me. The president didn't even send me a telegram."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Owens's success at the games caused consternation for Hitler, who was using them to show the world a resurgent Nazi Germany.<ref name="Bachrach">Template:Cite book</ref> He and other government officials had hoped that German athletes would dominate the games.<ref name="Bachrach" /><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Nazi minister Albert Speer wrote that Hitler "was highly annoyed by the series of triumphs by the marvelous colored American runner, Jesse Owens. People whose antecedents came from the jungle were primitive, Hitler said with a shrug; their physiques were stronger than those of civilized whites and hence should be excluded from future games."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In Germany, Owens had been allowed to travel with and stay in the same hotels as whites, at a time when African Americans in many parts of the United States had to stay in segregated hotels that accommodated only blacks.<ref name="Olympic moments">Template:Cite news</ref> When Owens returned to the United States, he was greeted in New York City by Mayor Fiorello La Guardia.<ref>Template:Cite webTemplate:Cbignore</ref> During a Manhattan ticker-tape parade<ref>Template:Cite webTemplate:Cbignore</ref> in his honor along Broadway's Canyon of Heroes, someone handed Owens a paper bag. Owens paid it little mind until the parade concluded. When he opened it up, he found that the bag contained $10,000 in cash (Template:Inflation). Owens's wife Ruth later said: "And he [Owens] didn't know who was good enough to do a thing like that. And with all the excitement around, he didn't pick it up right away. He didn't pick it up until he got ready to get out of the car".<ref name="latimes">Template:Cite web</ref>

After the parade, Owens was not permitted to enter through the main doors of the Waldorf Astoria New York and instead forced to travel up to the reception honoring him in a freight elevator.<ref name="Olympic moments" /><ref name=schwartz>Template:Cite web</ref> President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) never invited Jesse Owens to the White House following his triumphs at the Olympic Games.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> When the Democrats bid for his support, Owens rejected those overtures: as a staunch Republican, he endorsed Alf Landon, Roosevelt's Republican opponent in the 1936 presidential race.<ref>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Subscription required</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Owens was employed to do campaign outreach for African American votes for Landon in the 1936 presidential election.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Life after the Olympics

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File:Jesse Owens 1971 Ajman stamp.jpg
Owens on a 1971 UAE stamp

Owens was quoted saying the secret behind his success was, "I let my feet spend as little time on the ground as possible. From the air, fast down, and from the ground, fast up."<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

After the 1936 Olympics, Avery Brundage organized a grueling European exhibition tour to profit the AAU and USOC, both of which he led. Owens, exhausted but pressured to compete, ran multiple races across Europe with little rest, food, or support. Despite such treatment, Brundage continued booking events across Scandinavia. Owens, drained and frustrated, eventually refused to continue. Brundage retaliated by having Owens permanently suspended from amateur competition which immediately ended his career. Owens was angry and stated that "A fellow desires something for himself." As Ruth Owens later recalled, "That Avery Brundage feller tore a big hole inside Jesse."<ref name="bbc2011">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Owens argued that the racial discrimination he had faced throughout his athletic career, such as not being eligible for scholarships in college and therefore being unable to take classes between training and working to pay his way, meant he had to give up on amateur athletics in pursuit of financial gain elsewhere.<ref name="Entine">Template:Cite book</ref>

After returning to America following his Olympic success, racism back home led to difficulty earning a living despite his international acclaim. Owens struggled to find work and took on menial jobs as a gas station attendant, playground janitor,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and manager of a dry cleaning firm and at times resorted to racing against motorbikes, cars, trucks and horses for a cash prize.<ref name=":4">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

People say it was degrading for an Olympic champion to run against a horse, but what was I supposed to do? I had four gold medals, but you can't eat four gold medals.<ref name=":4" />

Jesse Owens had broken racial barriers and done things that no other man had done before him. Yet after he returned home from the Olympic Games, he was not greeted with the glory and praise that other White Olympians had received. Owens stated, “No one had offered me a job" and "I had jumped farther and run faster than any man ever had before, and it left me with next to nothing.”<ref name=":02">Farley, A. P. (2012). The Bitter Tears of Jesse Owens. Berkeley La Raza Law Journal, 22, 231–256.</ref> Jesse wasn't being treated like an Olympic gold medalist but instead, just any other African American at that time. Another quote said "So I sold myself into a new kind of slavery. I was no longer a proud man who had won four Olympic gold medals. I was a spectacle, a freak who made his living by competing—dishonestly—against dumb animals."<ref name=":02" /> Despite his athletic triumphs, he was not spared from poverty and was forced to take on degrading work just to afford basic necessities.  

Owens bridged the gap between racial disenfranchisement and opportunity. His Olympic medals showed the Jim Crow South and the world what was possible when African Americans were given a fair chance. Though many resisted racial integration, Owens served as a key figure for the beginning building blocks of the Civil Rights Movement.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Owens was banned from attending amateur events to enhance his visibility, and soon discovered that commercial opportunities had almost completely dried up. In 1937, he briefly toured with a twelve-piece jazz band under contract with Consolidated Artists but found it unfulfilling. He also made appearances at baseball games and other events.<ref>Jack Neely, "The Fastest Bandleader in the World," Knoxville Mercury, August 10, 2016.</ref>

Owens was involved politically and lent his support to the Republican Party and Alf Landon in the 1936 United States Presidential Election, saying that Adolf Hitler congratulated him but that he was snubbed by President Franklin Roosevelt after winning a gold medal.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 1942, Willis Ward—a friend and former competitor from the University of Michigan<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>—who was then working at Ford Motor Company as Assistant Personnel Director, invited Owens to Detroit. Ward worked for the Ford Motor Company's "ad hoc civil rights division, serving as the liaison between black and white workers"<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and was an advocate for African American employees in the personnel department. Owens wound up replacing him, and remained with Ford until 1946.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In the late 1940s, Owens moved his family to Chicago and opened his own public relations agency.

In 1946, Owens collaborated with Abe Saperstein to establish the West Coast Negro Baseball League, where he served as Vice-President and owned the Portland (Oregon) Rosebuds franchise in Oregon.<ref name="oba20053">Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> He toured with the Rosebuds, sometimes entertaining the audience in between doubleheader games by competing in races against horses.<ref name="elpaso2010">Template:Cite web</ref> The WCBA disbanded after only two months.<ref name="oba2005">Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref><ref name="elpaso2010" />

Owens helped promote the exploitation film Mom and Dad in African American neighborhoods.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He tried to make a living as a sports promoter, essentially an entertainer. He would give local sprinters a ten- or twenty-yard start and beat them in the 100-yd (91-m) dash. He also challenged and defeated racehorses; as he revealed later, the trick was to race a high-strung Thoroughbred that would be frightened by the starter's shotgun and give him a bad jump. On the lack of opportunities, Owens added, "There was no television, no big advertising, no endorsements then. Not for a black man, anyway."<ref name="Entine" />

He traveled to Rome for the 1960 Summer Olympics, where he met the 1960 100 meters champion Armin Hary of Germany, who had defeated American Dave Sime in a photo finish.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

During spring training in 1965, Owens was hired by the New York Mets as a running instructor.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Owens ran a dry cleaning business and worked as a gas station attendant to earn a living, but he eventually filed for bankruptcy. In 1966, he was successfully prosecuted for tax evasion.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> At rock bottom, he was aided in beginning his rehabilitation. Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower enlisted Owens as a goodwill ambassador in 1955 and sent the world-renowned track star to India, the Philippines, and Malaya to promote physical exercise as well as tout the cause of American freedom and economic opportunity in the developing world. He would continue his goodwill tours in the 1960s and 1970s. Although he lost his patronage job with the Illinois Youth Commission in 1960, Owens continued his product endorsement work for such corporations as Quaker Oats, Sears and Roebuck, and Johnson & Johnson. Owens traveled the world and spoke to companies such as the Ford Motor Company and stakeholders such as the United States Olympic Committee.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 1972, he and his wife retired to Arizona.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Owens initially refused to support the black power salute by African-American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the 1968 Summer Olympics. He told them:<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The black fist is a meaningless symbol. When you open it, you have nothing but fingers—weak, empty fingers. The only time the black fist has significance is when there's money inside. There's where the power lies.

Four years later in his 1972 book I Have Changed, he revised his opinion:

I realized now that militancy in the best sense of the word was the only answer where the black man was concerned, that any black man who wasn't a militant in 1970 was either blind or a coward.

Owens traveled to Munich for the 1972 Summer Olympics as a special guest of the West German government,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> meeting West German Chancellor Willy Brandt and former boxer Max Schmeling.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

From 1974 to 1977, Owens served on the Boys Town Board of Directors, frequently meeting with students to share his life experiences and the challenges he overcame.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

A few months before his death, Owens had unsuccessfully tried to convince President Jimmy Carter to withdraw his demand that the United States boycott the 1980 Moscow Olympics in protest of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. He argued that the Olympic ideal was supposed to be observed as a time-out from war and that it was above politics.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Death

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File:Grave of Jesse Owens (1913–1980) at Oak Woods Cemetery, Chicago 1.jpg
Owens's grave at Oak Woods Cemetery

Owens was a pack-a-day cigarette smoker for 35 years, starting at age 32.<ref name="Nelson2013">Template:Cite book</ref> Beginning in December 1979, he was hospitalized on and off with an extremely aggressive and drug-resistant type of lung cancer. He died of the disease at age 66 in Tucson, Arizona, on March 31, 1980, with his wife and other family members at his bedside.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He was buried next to the Lake of Memories at Oak Woods Cemetery in Chicago, near where his children and extended family still lived. The grave is inscribed: Template:Blockquote

President Jimmy Carter issued a tribute to Owens, stating: "Perhaps no athlete better symbolized the human struggle against tyranny, poverty and racial bigotry."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Legacy

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File:Jesse Owens figure at Madame Tussauds London (30870323410).jpg
Waxwork of Owens at Madame Tussauds, London

Owens is widely considered one of the greatest athletes in the history of track and field.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Over the course of his career, he earned nine Big Ten titlesTemplate:Efn, eight NCAA titles, and six USA Track & Field titles.<ref name=":12" /><ref name=":8" /> His international legacy was cemented at the Olympics, where he won gold in all four events he entered—each in Olympic record time–delivering a powerful rebuttal to Adolf Hitler’s ideology of Aryan supremacy and dealt a symbolic blow to the Nazi regime’s racist propaganda.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Several of his world records endured for decades, including his long jump record, which lasted 25 years, and his 100-meter dash record, which stood for 20.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Following his athletic career, Owens experienced difficulties securing financial stability, a circumstance attributed in part to limited opportunities available to African American athletes during that period.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Although he was celebrated for his Olympic accomplishments, he was not invited to the White House or formally recognized by the U.S. government at the time.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Later in life, his contributions to sport and society were acknowledged through various honors, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1976 and the Congressional Gold Medal posthumously in 1990.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

"Giants like Jesse Owens show us why politics will never defeat the Olympic spirit. His character, his achievements have continued to inspire Americans as they did the whole world in 1936."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> — Gerald Ford

Owens has been honored with schools, streets, and athletic facilities named after him—including Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium—and his life has inspired documentaries, books, and the biopic Race.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=":13" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Notably, the documentary Olympic Pride, American Prejudice also highlights his story as part of a broader examination of the 18 Black American athletes who competed in the 1936 Berlin Olympics.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite AV media</ref> He is also a member of several halls of fame, including the U.S. Olympic and National Track and Field Hall of Fame.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The dormitory that Owens occupied during the Berlin Olympics has been fully restored into a living museum, with pictures of his accomplishments at the games, and a letter (intercepted by the Gestapo) from a fan urging him not to shake hands with Hitler.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Athletic achievements

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Sources:<ref name=":15">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=":14">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=":12">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=":8">Template:Cite web</ref>

Fairmount Junior High SchoolTemplate:Efn

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Annual Cleveland Athletic Club Indoor Meet at Cleveland Public Hall

East Technical High SchoolTemplate:Efn

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Mansfield Interscholastic Relays<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Intraschool Meet in Cleveland (June 3, 1933)<ref name=":15" />

OHSAA State ChampionshipsTemplate:Efn<ref name=":14" />

National High School ChampionshipsTemplate:Efn(June 17, 1933)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Ohio State Fair (August 31, 1933)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

College – Ohio State UniversityTemplate:Efn

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West Virginia Indoor Relays (February 10, 1934)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Freshman Dual Meet vs. Indiana (February 21, 1934)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Freshman Dual Meet vs. Michigan (February 27, 1934)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Freshman Dual Meet vs. Chicago (March 3, 1934)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

AAU Meet in ClevelandTemplate:Efn (March 24, 1934)<ref name=":16">Template:Cite web</ref>

City of Cincinnati AAU Indoor Meet (March 31, 1934)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Freshman Dual Meet vs. Purdue (May 4, 1934)<ref name=":11">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Freshman Dual Meet vs. MichiganTemplate:Efn (May 11, 1934)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Annual Intramural Meet (May 22, 1934)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Big Ten Freshman Championships (May 26, 1934)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Millrose Games (February 2, 1935)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

St. Louis Relays (April 5, 1935)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Drake Relays (April 26, 1935)<ref name=":7" />

Butler Indoor Relays<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Penn Relays (April 25, 1936)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Dual Meet vs. Michigan (May 2, 1936)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Tri-Meet vs. Notre Dame and Michigan State (May 9, 1936)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Dual Meet vs. Wisconsin (May 16, 1936)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Dual Meet vs. USC (June 13, 1936)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Central Intercollegiate Conference Championships (1935, 1936)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Big Ten Indoor Championships

Big Ten Outdoor ChampionshipsTemplate:Efn<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

NCAA Championships<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

USA Track and Field Championships

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USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

USA Indoor Track and Field Championships

1936 Olympics

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Olympic Trials<ref name=":10">Template:Cite web</ref>

Olympics

World Records

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Sources:<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

50-yard dash

60-yard dash (indoor)

60 metres dash (indoor)

100-yard dash

100 metres dash

  • June 20, 1936: 10.2 seconds

220-yard dash

200 metres dash (curve)

220-yard low hurdles

Long jump

  • May 25, 1935: 26 feet 8¼ inches or 8.13 metres
    • August 12, 1960: Broken by Ralph Boston with a leap of 26 feet 11¼ inches or 8.21 metres

Long jump (indoor)

  • February 23, 1935: 25 feet 9 inches or 7.85 metresTemplate:Efn
    • February 20, 1960: Broken by Irvin Roberson with a leap of 25 feet 9½ inches or 7.86 metres

4 × 100 metres relay

Non-Standard World Records

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Source:<ref name=":11" />

90-yard dash

  • Set by Charles Paddock in 1921 with a time of 8.8 seconds
  • Broken by Jesse Owens on May 4, 1934 with a time of 8.6 seconds

120-yard dash

  • Set by Howard Drew in 1914 with a time of 11.6 seconds
  • Broken by Jesse Owens on May 4, 1934 with a time of 11.5 seconds

Awards and honors

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Halls of Fame

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Awards and tributes

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Template:Poemquote

Literature

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The Jesse Owens Rising Star Award

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Beginning in 2024, a collaboration among the Owens family, the Jesse Owens Foundation, and the Wanda Diamond League will recognize two exceptional emerging top-performing male and female athletes, aged 23 or under.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Each winner will receive a bronze statuette of Owens designed by Belgian sculptor Jan Desmarets. Two oak trees will also be planted in the host city in honor of the two winners.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The inaugural awards ceremony was held in Brussels in September 2024, honoring 2023 World Championship silver medalist Diribe Welteji as the top female performer and 2024 Olympic gold medalist Letsile Tebogo as the top male performer.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Filmography

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Year Title Ref.
1936 Berlin 1936: Games of the XI Olympiad <ref>Template:Cite AV media</ref>
1938 Olympia <ref>Template:Cite AV media</ref>
1948 Kings of the Olympics <ref>Template:Cite AV media</ref>
1948 Olympic Cavalcade <ref>Template:Cite AV media</ref>
1964 Valentine's Day: All Through the Night <ref>Template:Cite AV media</ref>
1966 Jesse Owens Returns to Berlin <ref>Template:Cite AV media</ref>
1984 The Jesse Owens StoryTemplate:Efn <ref>Template:Cite AV media</ref>
2012 Jesse Owens (American Experience) <ref>Template:Cite AV media</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2016 RaceTemplate:Efn <ref>Template:Cite AV media</ref>
2016 Olympic Pride, American Prejudice <ref>Template:Cite AV media</ref>
2021 Capturing Black Lightning: Jesse Owens <ref>Template:Cite AV media</ref><ref>Template:Cite AV media</ref>
2022 Olympic Oaks: Continuing Jesse Owens' Legacy <ref>Template:Cite AV media</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2024 Triumph: Jesse Owens and the Berlin Olympics <ref>Template:Cite AV media</ref>

Other

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Further reading

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See also

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Notes

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References

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Template:Reflist

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