JESSE OWENS

JESSE OWENS, (1913 -1980) was a track star who won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympics and became an international symbol of Olympic excellence.

In 1976, President Ford awarded Jesse Owens the Medal of Freedom, and in 1979 President Carter presented him with the Living Legend Award.

Narration:

Gold medalist, and track and field star. His name – Jesse Owens.

Born in Alabama in 1913, James Cleveland Owens was one of eleven children.

During the Great Migration from 1910 to 1970, over one million African Americans left the South due to segregation. Owens and his family left Alabama for Ohio in 1922.

Owens started setting track records in high school, and then at Ohio State University, he won eight individual NCAA championships. He topped that achievement when he set three world records at the Big Ten Championships in 1935.

By 1936 Owens competed in the Summer Olympics in Berlin. The Germans saw the games as an opportunity to demonstrate their superiority. When Owens became the first American to win four gold medals at one Olympic game. He proved them wrong and became an American hero.

Jesse Owens. – A Great American

Credits: Editor: Stacy T. Holmes, ACE, Narrator: Steve Schy, Music: PartnersinRhyme.com, Digital Collection: Library of Congress, Copyright: CBN Communications