Who is Jesse Owens?
Jesse Owens was born James Cleveland Owens in 1913, on a small farm in Oakville, Alabama. His grandparents had been slaves and his parents were sharecroppers. They lived in a small shack that was not insulated, but frigid in the winters and extremely hot in the summers. Jesse Owens was not very healthy, and often had pneumonia, or what his family called the “devil’s cold.” They had no money for medication or doctors, so his parents resorted to methods like wrapping him in blankets in front of the fire, to “break” the fever, and cutting out a lump that had appeared on Owens’ leg with a hot kitchen knife. When Jesse Owens was nine years old, his family moved to Cleveland, Ohio. His teacher mistook his initials, J.C. as the name “Jesse” and he began to be known as “Jesse Owens.” The whole family worked to earn money, even the children. At fourteen, Jesse Owens began junior high school. The track coach, Charles Riley, saw his potential and asked Owens to train for the track team. He had to
