Name:______Date:______
Jesse Owens Biography
The town of Oakville witnessed the birth of a future Olympic star on September 12 of 1913. James Cleveland Owens, was the youngest of ten children born in the home of Henry and Emma Owens, a couple of sharecroppers dedicated to planting corn, cotton and other crops during the summer while the young Jesse ran around the farm.
When James Cleveland Owens was nine, his family moved to Cleveland, Ohio. Jesse attended school in Alabama in a one-room house where he was taught to read and write, but in Ohio, he was given the name of Jesse at the public school after his teacher misunderstood the accent of the boy when he said his name was J.C. Later Jesse Owens Biography would describe the episode that he wrote in his spare time. Son of a sharecropper and grandson of a slave, Jesse Owens was a weak boy that often was sick with a disease that her mother called "devil's cold" but running improved his health over time.
Henry Owens was unable to find a better job and his family was very poor. In Jesse Owens Biography, we found how he decided to help by taking different jobs after school loading freight cars, delivering groceries, and working in a shoe repair shop. In junior high school, the coach Charlie Riley saw Jesse in a gym class in which students were timed in the 60-yard dash and guessing the talent of the young Jesse, Riley invited him to run for his track team.
Because of his job, Jesse describes how he was unable to participate with Riley, but he offered to train him in the mornings, amazed by Jesse's speed. From here, the name of Jesse became the high school sensation competing in the 100-yard and 220 yard dashes. Riley continued training him to make him a great jumper getting him into the 440-yard run. Multiple colleges recruited Jesse, but he chose Ohio State University, where he was discriminated against, not awarded with any scholarships, and was forced to live in the campus with other African American athletes.
Under these stressful circumstances and having to work to pay for school Jesse Owens' Olympic career began, being the sensation of the Olympic Games in Berlin during 1936, in the middle of Nazi propaganda promoting the racial superiority of German athletes and depicting ethnic Africans as inferior contenders. This is far from the reality you learn when you read Jesse Owens Biography to learn how he demonstrated his supremacy by winning four gold medals and receiving recognition of Ohio State University after Owens death in 1980, by completing on its campus the Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium by 2001.
Answer the following comprehension questions and underline in the passage where you located your response.
- What was Jesse Owens name at birth and why was it different than Jesse Owens?
______
- Who was Charlie Riley and why was he important to Jesse Owen?
______
- What did Jesse Owens accomplish to make him a hero?
______
______
- Draw a picture of Jesse Owens below: