Jesse Owens
Overview
 
James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens (September 12, 1913 – March 31, 1980) was an American track and field athlete who specialized in the sprints and the long jump
Long jump
The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength, and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a take off point...

. He participated in the 1936 Summer Olympics
1936 Summer Olympics
The 1936 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event which was held in 1936 in Berlin, Germany. Berlin won the bid to host the Games over Barcelona, Spain on April 26, 1931, at the 29th IOC Session in Barcelona...

 in Berlin, Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

, where he achieved international fame by winning four gold medals: one each in the 100 meters, the 200 meters, the long jump, and as part of the 4x100 meter relay team. He was the most successful athlete at the 1936 Summer Olympics, a victory more poignant and often noted because Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...

 had intended the 1936 games to showcase his Aryan
Aryan
Aryan is an English language loanword derived from Sanskrit ārya and denoting variously*In scholarly usage:**Indo-Iranian languages *in dated usage:**the Indo-European languages more generally and their speakers...

 ideals and prowess.

He has the Jesse Owens Award
Jesse Owens Award
The Jesse Owens Award is an annual track and field award that is the highest accolade given out by USA Track and Field . As the country's highest award for the sport, it bears Jesse Owens' name in recognition of his significant career, which included four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games...

 accolade named after him in honor of his significant career.
James Cleveland Owens was born the seventh of eleven children of Henry and Mary Emma Owens in Oakville
Oakville, Alabama
Oakville is a small community located in the southeast corner of Lawrence County, Alabama. The community is unincorporated. The community has two parks, one dedicated to 20th-century African-American athlete Jesse Owens and the other to Middle Woodland period and Cherokee Native Americans.The...

, Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...

 on September 12, 1913.
Quotations

Another old friend gone!

Reported response to learning that his last remaining world record had been broken (31 December 1960); as quoted in Simpson’s Contemporary Quotations (1988) compiled by James B. Simpson.

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.

Blackthink: My Life as Black Man and White Man (1970) ISBN 0688011632

When I passed the Chancellor he arose, waved his hand at me, and I waved back at him. I think the writers showed bad taste in criticizing the man of the hour in Germany.

On reports that Hitler had deliberately avoided acknowledging his victories, and had refused to shake his hand, in The Jesse Owens Story (1970) ISBN 0399603158

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.

I Have Changed (1972)

Joe Louis and I were the first modern national sports figures who were black... But neither of us could do national advertising because the South wouldn't buy it. That was the social stigma we lived under.

The Tampa Tribune (1 April 1980) File:Berlin36-2.jpg|144px|thumb|right|The road to the Olympics, leads to no city, no country. It goes far beyond New York or Moscow, ancient Greece or Nazi Germany. The road to the Olympics leads — in the end — to the best within us.

We used to have a lot of fun. We never had any problems. We always ate. The fact that we didn't have steak? Who had steak?

 
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