Jesse Owens Essay Example

The Bullet "We all have dreams. In order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline and effort"(Foner 2).Jesse Owens was born a grandson of a slave and son of a sharecropper in September 12, 1913 in Lawrence County, Alabama. He was born seventh out of eleven children to a poverty stricken family, yet still managed to overcome prejudice, ran track while attending school, and be chosen to represent America in the Olympics. Jesse was affected by racism at a young age when he was a child. At age 5, a tumor started growing on his chest. His father who was poor could not afford to pay for Jesse to have surgery. When Jesse's father Henry asked his wealthy white landlord to invest money to help save a black child, the man was unwilling. One day Jesse woke up to his mother Mary standing over him with a sterilized knife and boiling water. She cut the tumor off her baby boy, causing him to bleed for 3 days. Fortunatley, he survived the amateur surgery. "I fought, I fought harder . . . but one cell at a time, panic crept into my body, taking me over"(McCoy 4). This quote shows how Jesse overcame predjuce because he still survived even though his prejudice landlord was unwilling to help him. In Germany many citizens were trying to boycott Germany because of segregation and prejudice against German Jews by the Nazi government. Americans and others were trying to prevent the these segregationist policies from becoming enforced. Since Jesse Owens was black, the leader of Germany (Adolph Hitler) did not want to have Germans face a black man in the Olympics. "I wasn't in Berlin to compete against any one athlete. The purpose of the Olympics, anyway, was to do your best"(Fonner 3). This quote shows that even though Germany did not want him in the Olympics, he still went. Hitler also did not want Germany in the Olympic because he feared Owens was a "secret weapon" for the U.S. Hitler also thought that