Jesse Owens Research Paper

Taking a Stand at The 1936 Summer Olympics
How Jesse Owens Changed Our World Forever

Jacob Juneau Junior Division Research Paper

1500 Words

“Although I wasn’t invited to shake hands with Hitler, I wasn’t invited to the White House to shake hands with the President either.” This is only one example of the rather ridiculous racism Jesse Owens faced in his life. Yet he fought through it and became the greatest olympic athlete the world has ever seen.

Background Information: Jesse Owens

Jesse Owens was born on September 12, 1913 in Oakville, Alabama. He was the youngest of ten children.
But when he turned 9 years old, him and his family moved to Cleveland, Ohio in The Great Migration due to the heavy segregated south. His real name was J.C. but a teacher thought his name was Jesse when he said it due to his heavy southern accent, and it stuck for the rest of his life. Jesse had many jobs growing up ranging from loading freight cars to working in a shoe repair shop, while his father and older brother worked in the steel mill. While working, Owens realized he loved running. Owens’ Junior High track coach, Charles Riley, was said to be a big help to Owens’ track career from Owens’ himself. He would let him practice in the morning instead of after school because Jesse had to work after school. Jesse met his future bride, Minnie Ruth Solomon, at Fairmont Junior High School and they dated throughout High School. They had their first daughter in 1932 and got married in 1935. The couple then had two more daughters in 1937 and 1940. They would keep their marriage until Jesse’s passing in 1980 .

Before WWII Germany suffered defeat in World War II, leading to the election for their next leader or Fuhrer. Adolf Hitler did not technically win the election, but with his campaign, he became very popular. Their past president was up for a second term, but ultimately swore Hitler into becoming Fuhrer on January 14, 1921. Between 1921-1932, nothing important happened, but come 1933, everything would be shaken up. Hitler was named chancellor of Germany in 1933, and with this, came the beginning of World War II. Hitler demanded to have immediate control of Poland and its territories. "This was characterised by extensive bombing early on to destroy the enemy’s air capacity, railroads, communication lines, and munitions dumps, followed by a massive land invasion with overwhelming numbers of troops, tanks, and artillery. Once the German forces had ploughed their way through, devastating a swath of territory, infantry moved in, picking off any remaining resistance." - www.theweek.co.uk. Adolf Hitler did successfully invade Poland, and began taking action. Jews were immediately captured by Hitler’s army, and sent to “work camps.” These work camps would instantly turn into death camps, involving little to no food, extreme labor such as mining salt rocks, and on the spot executions. This caused countries like the United States of America, France, and Canada to come to Poland’s aid, and begin what is known as the Second World War.

Games of the XI Olympiad

The 1936 Berlin Olympics was an interesting event.
Berlin won the bid to host the Olympics over Barcelona, Spain, although the vote for host city was held there. The actual vote count between all countries; Germany, Spain, Egypt, Hungary, Argentina, Ireland, Finland, Switzerland, Brazil, and Italy, was 43 to Germany, 16 to Spain, and literally none to the rest of the countries. Germany did have 4 cities in the voting, but only Berlin got votes. Adolf Hitler thought the Olympics would be a great opportunity to promote his ideas about government and racial supremacy, but when other countries heard this, a boycott was threatened by those countries. Hitler then allowed athletes of different ethnicities and countries to participate in the games. But, Jewish athletes were barred from the olympics by a variety of methods and said athletes seemed to be side-lined in order not to offend the Nazi government. The Olympic Village, where athletes stay, is located at Elstal in Wustermark on the western edge of Berlin. Jesse Owens was actually allowed to stay here, despite the racist nature of Adolf Hitler. Later, after the olympics, these dormitories were repurposed as a hospital for use during the war. This site currently remains unknown in Germany, but is used for tournaments in effort to boost knowledge of the venues. There were twenty-two venues used in the Berlin Olympics. Such venues include Haus des Deutschen Sports used for fencing, BSV Field which was used for track sports, and
Reich Sports Field Stadium. Jesse Owens did compete here alongside fellow American athletes, and won medals there. Jesse Owens most notable event, and what most people know him for, was the long jump. Owens fouled on his first two jumped in the morning on the day of competition, but then made it to the final, where he was matched up against Luz Long. Long tied Owens on his second jump, but Owens responded to Long’s challenged with a twenty-six foot and a half jump, which was the first jump in Olympic history to be over twenty-six feet. This record stood for twenty-four years. After Owens’ victory, him and Luz Long walked arm in arm around the track as the German crowd cheered in approval. Hitler walked out of the stadium in disapproval and missed the medal ceremony. Owens did compete in three other events though; 100m dash, 200m dash, and 4 x 100m relay, all in which he won gold medals. In the 100m dash, Jesse Owens won and set a world record, 10.2 seconds, that stood for twenty years, all while in front of Hitler. No other 100m dash world record has stood for that long. In the 200m dash, Owens had a time of 20.7 which was also a record at the time. Lastly, in the 4 x 100m relay, the United States men’s team, with Jesse Owens help, won gold. In total, Jesse Owens managed to break or equal nine world and Olympic records.

The Aftermath and How Jesse Owens’ accomplishments changed the World

Following the Olympics and Jesse Owens’ performance, nothing changed immediately. Jesse Owens, as previously mentioned, did not get to shake hands with or meet the president, due to the color of his skin, despite his achievements. Owens even had to use the service entrance to a dinner celebrating him. You would’ve thought our country would take steps forward and be accepting at the time, but it was the opposite. Up until right about when the Civil Rights Act Of 1964 was passed, people were still publicly racist. This included segregation and “hypersegregation” which is the segregation of facilities, services, and necessities such as housing and medical treatment. Jesse did live to see the beginning of this wonderful change but would pass away at the age of sixty-six. Owens’ was a pack-a-day smoker and had been previously hospitalized for an extremely aggressive form of drug resistant lung cancer.

My Personal Opinion

I believe Jesse Owens was the greatest Olympic athlete to ever compete.
Jesse broke through every racial barrier or stereotype ever set against him and did it well. Owens set Olympic and world records only to be broken over twenty years later. He was a sensation through college and was fairly young while competing at the Olympics at only twenty-three, and performed as if he had the knowledge of an older experienced athlete. I honestly do not see any question as to who should be known as the most remarkable Olympic athlete to live. It should be Jesse Owens. He was an african american athlete competing under the eye of a man who killed people of different believes, appearances, and for entertainment; and performed the best out of the rest of his competitors at the Olympic games. At the time, Jesse Owens was not recognized for his feats in the slightest, and would not be publicly recognized and congratulated by the U.S. government until after he passed away. After finding this out, I was shocked. I couldn’t believe the government would do something like that. Imagine being an amazing athlete, giving your fullest effort, all for your country and sport, to come home and be ignored until your
death.

Analysis