Jesse Owens Thesis Statement

¨We all have dreams. In order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort.¨ This is a quote from Jesse Owens, who in order to make his dreams come true of becoming an Olympic Gold medalist he had to dedicate his time and effort in order to reach his goal. Jesse Owens was a dreamer who faced all obstacles and challenges in order to turn his dreams into realities. In the Summer Games of 1936, Owens broke the color barrier and showed that it did not matter what race you were, what really mattered, was all the hard work and dedication you put into accomplishing your dreams. Jesse Owens was an important figure in American History, because he showed that color didn’t make any

The 1936 Olympics were supposed to support Hitler’s belief that German “Aryan” people were the dominant race. The Berlin games were supposed to be a German showcase and a statement for Aryan supremacy. The African Americans of Team U.S.A. faced a lot of challenges including the competition, and Hitler’s view of Aryan Supremacy, also known as Hitler’s ideal domination of white Europeans. Jesse Owens proved Hitler wrong, when he became the first American athlete to win four gold medals in a single Olympiad. Adolf Hitler was so stunned and angry that Owens had successfully defeated his German people, that he even walked out of the stadium. In all the United States won eleven gold medals in the 1936 Berlin Olympics, six of them were won by African American athletes. Jesse Owens and the U.S.A. Olympic Team returned to America as heroes, they were even honored with a ticker tape parade in New York City. Even though Owens helped the U.S. win at the Olympics, he was treated badly because of his skin color. He had to sit in the back of the bus just like any other African American at the time, and he also couldn’t live where he wanted to live. The saddest thing is that he wasn’t invited to shake hands with Hitler after the games, but he also wasn’t invited to the White House to shake hands with President Franklin D. Roosevelt