jesse owens
...ker p .19) After Bolton he went to Fairmount junior high (William G Baker p .19). There he met his mentor, the man who would teach him everything he knows Charles Riley (William G Baker p.19). “I grew to admire him and respect his words his actions and everything else” he said about Riley but at first Jesse was intimidated by him at first. After all they were total opposites, he was an old Irish man and Jesse was a young black boy at the time. Riley noticed jesses running and jumping abilities “id notice watching me for a year or so especially when there was running and jumping involved”. They eventually become friends and riley teaches everything about running from flow of the body to the flow of the mind when you are doing it. Jesse gradually became better and began running track for the junior high team (William G Baker p.22). He didn’t win much meets but that’s were Riley’s teachings flourished. Every time he lost he would teach him something. In one event Jesse didn’t run relaxed which is an essential tool to creating a good runner. So he took him to the horse tracks to teach him how they never change face they just focus on what they have to achieve (William G Baker p 22). In September 1930 he enrolled in east technical high school, within walking distance from his home (William G Baker p.27). He was dedicated to do well do to the fact that this was the time of the great depression. His dad and his brothers all got laid off from there jobs and eventually his brothers dropped out of school to maintain work. His dad on the other hand couldn’t work because the results of his physical exam proved that he was blind in one eye. Never again was he able to find regular employment (William G Bakerp.27). Jesse did flourish but only in vocational classes not academics. He was bad reader and since the books in his junior high were slim he never really learned how to study, which is a big part of high school education. Owens made up for his bad academics with his track. Before he jumped into track again he tried football and basketball. An injury in basketball lead his principle told him he should go for track since he had done it before. He was good and after he even went on to Ohio State where he truly flourished in track and field. Though with good came bad and one day while being involved in a prank with his buddies he slipped on water and broke his leg 2 weeks before the big ten championship (Jesse Owens 2 bio). After those two weeks he still participated in the championship in which “the buckeye bullet” as they called him in college ran the 100 yards in 9.4 seconds to tie a world record (Jesse Owens myth 2). In his only long jump, he leaped 26.8 and ¼ inches which made this a world record (Jesse Owens myth 2). His 20.3 record better the world record in the 220 dash. He beat the record in the 220 yard low hurdles as well being the only person to do so at the time. All those records where broken in the matter of 45 minutes with his leg still hurting two weeks before. After college Jesse was recognized as one of the top track and field athletes of the time and in 1936 he went to the Olympics in Berlin Germany (Paul g Neimark flap) now you would have to understand that at this time a world war was heating up. Germany was Nazi ruled which meant they supported the whole world being blue eyed Caucasians. Jesse Owens was neither blue eyed and in no way Caucasians so you could see how this situation was strange but more than that it was important because he had to prove that blacks were not inferior. He certainly proved himself by winning gold medals in the 100-200 meter dashes, the long jump and the in the American 4x100 relay teams (Jesse Owens myth 3). This humiliated Hitler and his Nazi crew. Even though Hitler was upset because of jesses awesome performance Jesse made a friend in Luz Long. Luz was white and on top of that he was part of Hitler’s army “I took courage for him to befriend me in front of Hitler” Owens said. Jesse also said you can melt all the medals I have and you wouldn’t be a planting on the 24kt friendship me and Luz have” (Jesse myth 3). The Olympics were the last time he saw Luz Long. He died in World War 2 in the mitts of combat. For the incredible performance in the Berlin games he was awarded 5000 dollars (Jesse American 2) but not much credit “I wasn’t invited to shake hands with Hitler, but I wasn’t invited to shake hands with the president either” (Jesse myth 3) . He also couldn’t find a job considering 5000 dollars was not enough to support his family forever “when I come back to my native country, after all the talk about Hitler, I couldn’t ride on the bus, I had to go to the back door and I couldn’t live where I wanted” (Jesse myth 3)....