Jesse Owens: A True National Hero

Jesse Owens, or James Cleveland was known to be a notable four-time Olympic gold medalist and the uppermost American track and field athlete in the nation. With his emerging status of being one of the world’s greatest African American athlete, Jesse Owens has achieved the recognition today amongst many sports fans in history. Owens has displayed the action of becoming a true national hero who encourages people to pursue their dreams of being in the Olympics. Owens was marked by ESPN as the 6th greatest USA athlete of the twentieth century. With all of his abundant contributions, Jesse Owens will be remembered today as a hero. Born on September 12, 1913, in Oakville, Alabama, Owens was known as “The Buckeye Bullet”. He was a grandson of slaves, and was the son of a sharecropper. As a child, he was diagnosed with pneumonia and chronic bronchial congestion. Despite these illnesses, Owens was required to work daily. For example, at age seven, he was still expected to pick up 100 pounds of cotton to provide guidance for his family. As two years followed, Owens moved with his family to Cleveland, Ohio as a part of the Great Migration where his entire environment changed when 1.5 million African Americans left the

This was due to the fact that he smoked up to a pack of cigarettes per day for 35 years. The death of the world’s greatest African American athlete has impacted the nation today. President Carter’s words all connect towards the achievement of Jesse Owens. His speech directed towards him displays how Owens displayed the action of the human struggle towards poverty, tyranny, and racial prejudice. With Owens abundant contributions of being high-ranked in track and field, winning four gold medals (100 meters, 200 meters, long jump, and 4 × 100 meter relay), being in the US Olympic Committee Hall of Fame, and more, he will be remembered as an outstanding