Jesse Owens

The Fastest Man Alive

By:Shiloh D’Eliso

Early Years

In this book you will learn all about Jesse Owens. Jesse Owens was born on September 12, 1913 in Oakville, Alabama, U.S.A. He was born to a sharecropping family and had ten siblings.

Challenges

Jesse Owens faced many challenges. Some of his challenges were being born a sharecropper, having many sicknesses as a child such as scarlet fever and asthma, and not being able to be in the same nice hotels his white teammates could . Some more of his challenges were not being able to get scholarships for running on the track team, and that when he came back to the U.S. the president didn’t make a party for him, and he didn’t even congratulate him. Those are some challenges that Jesse Owens faced.

Notable

Jesse Owens is known for a lot of things. Jesse Owens is most known for being one of the fastest men on earth and helping people understand that black people are just as good and cool and amazing as white people. He is also notable for telling people all the struggles that black people have gone through and how they still have done amazing things.That is why Jesse Owens is notable.

Later years

Jesse Owens married Minnie Ruth Solomon in 1935. When Jesse Owens came back from the Olympics he had a hard time finding a job but eventually found jobs such as Petrol station attendant, Playground Janitor, Manager of a dry cleaning firm, and Gas pumper.Because of smoking, Owens died of lung cancer at 67 years old on March 31, 1980.

Things I Admire

I admire many things about Jesse Owens. Some of the things I admire about Jesse Owens are that he didn’t boast about his abilities, he also never let things get him down and always had a smile on his face even when he wasn’t on the track.Some more things I admire about Jesse Owens are that he won 4 gold medals in the 1936 Olympics under Hitlers rule and he proved to everyone that colored people are just as good as white people.Those are the reasons I admire about Jesse Owens.

Interesting Facts

Here are some interesting and cool facts about Jesse Owens. One interesting fact about Jesse is that his real name is James Cleveland Owens (JC) and when he was in school his teacher asked what his name was. He said JC but because of his accent she thought he said Jesse and he was too shy to say that it was JC so it stuck. A crazy fact is that Jesse Owens set 5 and tied 1 world record in 45 minutes! Another cool fact is that Owens set a long jump lasted a little over 25 years! The last fact about Jesse Owens is that he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1976 by President Ford. Those are some cool facts about Jesse Owens.

Here are some photos of Jesse Owens