In an era far removed from the African American celebrity athletes
of today, Olympic great Jesse Owens achieved fame by running faster
and jumping farther than anyone in the world. Author Jacqueline
Edmondson explores Owens' struggles and hard-earned
accomplishments, as well as how he paved the way for future
generations of athletes, including color-line shatterer Jackie
Robinson. It is difficult to imagine a time when African Americans
were not part of professional sports in the United States. So many
admired and beloved African-American athletes are national heroes
today: Michael Jordan, Venus and Serena Williams, Tiger Woods,
Florence Griffin-Joyner, Shaquille O'Neal, Muhammad Ali, to name a
few. No such celebrity athletes appeared on magazine covers when
Jesse Owens was a boy in the 1920s, no African American stars for
him to hope to emulate. As the first American in track and field to
win four gold medals in a single Olympic Games, Owens' athletic
accomplishments were achieved despite seemingly insurmountable
odds. This insightful biography tells the life story of a boy who
grew up in poverty in the Deep South, won Olympic gold in Hitler's
Germany by running faster and jumping farther than anyone in the
world, and achieved fame and sometimes fortune in the midst of the
Great Depression and a nation deeply divided by race. Yet while
Owens broke world records in track and gained attention from the
general public, few athletes could understand his experiences,
including the overt racial discrimination he faced-even fewer who
understood the complexities his fame brought. Author Jacqueline
Edmondson explores Owens' struggles and hard-earned
accomplishments, as well as how he paved the way for future
generations of athletes, including color line shatterer, Jackie
Robinson. A timeline, photos, and extensive bibliography of print
and electronic sources supplement this biography of one of the
greatest Olympic athletes in American history.
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