Black History Month Fact #23

Jesse Owens became an American hero after an amazing performance at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany. At the time, Germany was ruled by Adolph Hitler who absurdly believed that blacks, Asians and other races were inferior to whites. Jessie proved how wrong Hitler's racist ideas were by winning the gold medal in the long jump, the 100-meter dash and the 200-meter dash. He took home a fourth gold medal by running the opening leg for the US team that won the 4x100-meter relay. Jesse was nicknamed the World's Fastest Man and, in 1976, he was awarded the Medal of Freedom - the highest award a US citizen can receive.