Jesse Owens

About Jesse Owens

James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens (September 12, 1913 – March 31, 1980) was an American track and field athlete. He participated in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany, where he achieved international fame by winning four gold medals: one each in the 100 meters, the 200 meters, the long jump, and as part of the 4x100 meter relay team.

James Cleveland Owens was born in Lawrence County, Alabama, in the Oakville community, to Henry and Emma Owens. When Owens was nine, his father moved to the Glenville section of Cleveland, Ohio. Owens was the grandson of a slave and the son of a sharecropper. He was often sick with what his mother reportedly called "the devil's cold." He was given the name Jesse by a teacher in Cleveland who did not understand his country accent when the young boy said he was called J.C.

Life in the ghetto was not prosperous for the family. Owens had taken different jobs in his spare time: He delivered groceries, loaded freight cars and worked in a shoe repair shop. During this period Owens realized that he had a passion for running.