Notes

Jesse Owens
By: Alexander Spiegel and Haris Tsiotras
In August of 1963, American athlete Jesse Owens competed in the Berlin Olympics despite the fact that he was black. He competed because he wanted to make a change which he did. He won four Gold Medals showing the world what black people could do.Personal Life
James Cleveland Owens was a young boy in Oakville, Alabama with his mother, Marry Emma Fitzgerald and his Father, Henry Cleveland Owens and 9 siblings. Later in his childhood, he moved to Cleveland, Ohio with his family. His nickname was JC and on the first day of second grade he told his teacher so. The teacher thought he said Jesse because of his southern accent, but he was to shy to correct her. The name stuck for the rest of his life. By the time that Jesse Owens entered the Olympic games he already had a daughter and a wife.

After the Olympics Jesse Owens was not brought to the White House even though that was a tradition for all athletes to shake hands with the president. This upset Jesse and was later stated in one of his interviews. He was stated to say this "When I came back to my native country, after all the stories about Hitler, I couldn't ride in the front of the bus," he said. "I had to go to the back door. I couldn't live where I wanted. I wasn't invited to shake hands with Hitler, but I wasn't invited to the White House to shake hands with the president, either." Later in Owens' life he was hired as the running coach for The New York Mets. He would train The Mets during spring to help the players' base running techniques and foot speed. Sadly even Jesse's expertise could not help The Mets who were terrible and got last in many Big League competitions.