#jesse owens

[todaysdocument]

Photograph of Jesse Owens at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany

Record Group 242: National Archives Collection of Foreign Records SeizedSeries: Summer Olympic Games, Berlin 

Jesse Owens leaps through the air as officials and a packed stadium look on.

[citizenscreen]

Jesse Owens (September 12, 1913 – March 31, 1980), four-time Olympic gold medalist, four-time Olympic record holder. Owens was the first American to win four gold medals in a single Olympiad (1936).

[onefootin1941]

Jesse Owens in London after winning four gold medals at the 1936 Olympics.

[longliveblackness]

Many know Jesse Owens as the elite Olympic athlete that humiliated Hitler by dominating the 1936 Berlin Olympics, but did you know that after the Olympics, Owens had a hard time finding work?

One way he earned money was by racing a horse at events.

From stadium races to half time shows, Jesse Owens raced to earn money. Almost as soon as he came back from the Olympics, he began racing to earn money. Owen's said it was degrading, but he couldn't eat four gold medals. Once a symbol of freedom and American might, he was soon a sideshow at other events.

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Muchos conocen a Jesse Owens como un atleta olímpico élite, quien humilló a Hitler al dominar las Juegos Olímpicos de Berlín en 1936, pero ¿sabías que después los Juegos Olímpicos, Owens tuvo dificultades para encontrar empleo?

Una de las maneras en las que ganaba dinero, era corriendo contra caballos en algunos eventos.

Desde carreras en estadios a espectáculos de medio tiempo, Jesse Owens corría para ganar dinero. Tan pronto en cuanto regresó de los Juegos Olímpicos, comenzó a correr para ganar dinero. Owen dijo que era degradante, pero que no podía comer cuatro medallas de oro. Alguna vez fue un símbolo de la libertad y el poder estadounidense, pero pronto se convirtió en un espectáculo secundario en otros eventos.

[newyorkthegoldenage]

Jesse Owens, center, in the trials for the Olympics at Randall's Island, July 11 or July 12, 1936.

Photo: NY Daily News via Living New Deal

[blondebrainpowered]

Nearly 40 years after his snub by FDR, President Gerald Ford invited legendary Olympian Jesse Owens to the White House on August 5, 1976. To Owens' shock, Ford proceeded to not only honor him but also present him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

[ottovonruthie]

This Black History Month, I’m honoring the legacy of Black excellence in sports by spotlighting one Black athlete each day—28 athletes, 28 stories, 28 legacies.

Day 14: Jesse Owens

Jesse Owens was already a prodigy by the time he qualified for the 1936 Berlin Olympics, but what he did there turned him into history itself. Competing under the shadow of Adolf Hitler and a regime obsessed with Aryan supremacy, Owens won four gold medals—100 meters, 200 meters, long jump, and the 4x100 relay—shattering records and humiliating Nazi ideology on its own stage.

Born James Cleveland Owens in 1913 in Oakville, Alabama, the grandson of enslaved people and the son of a sharecropper, Owens grew up poor, sickly, and burdened with labor from a young age. After his family moved to Cleveland, his talent emerged quickly. A teacher misheard “J.C.” as “Jesse,” a small misunderstanding that would name one of the greatest athletes in history.

At East Technical High School and later at Ohio State University, Owens dominated track and field. In 1935 alone, he tied one world record and broke three others in a single day. By the time he arrived in Berlin at age 22, he was unstoppable.

At the 1936 Berlin Olympics, he delivered one of the most dominant performances the Games had ever seen. Over the course of eight days, he won four gold medals in the 100 meters, 200 meters, long jump, and 4×100 relay, setting Olympic records in the process. In front of a German crowd and under the watch of a regime intent on using the Olympics as proof of racial superiority, Owens became the undeniable center of the Games. His victories leaving no room for the narrative Germany hoped to tell.

Yet his triumph abroad contrasted sharply with his treatment at home. Despite embarrassing Hitler’s propaganda machine, Owens returned to a segregated America. He wasn’t invited to the White House, couldn’t ride at the front of the bus, and struggled financially after being banned from amateur competition for leaving an unpaid exhibition tour. His Olympic glory did not shield him from racism.

Owens spent much of his later life working various jobs, speaking publicly, and slowly gaining recognition that should have come earlier. Decades later, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and his legacy was finally honored as foundational to American sports and civil rights history.

Jesse Owens died in 1980 at the age of 66, long after the cheers had faded and the country had moved on. In death, he was finally honored in ways he never was in life. The distance between his greatness and the recognition he received says as much about America as it does about him.

‘Triumph’ Showcases Jesse Owens’ Dominance Over Hitler at the 1936 Olympics

The new documentary airs Wednesday night on The History Channel.

[detroitlib]

View of Joe Louis and Jesse Owens. Handwritten on back: "Joe Louis & Jesse Owens."

Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library