Jesse Owens: African-American Athlete

Jim Thorpe was an elite athlete of the 20th century and was considered to be one of the greatest athletes of all time, not only did he overcome racism and discrimination as a Native American, he also achieved lots of accomplishments throughout his athletic and acting career. Jim Thorpe was born on May 28, 1888, near Prague, Indian Territory (now in Oklahoma), United States. He attended Carlisle Indian Industrial School. (Adam Augustyn 1). Jim Thorpe won the first gold medal as a Native American in both pentathlon and decathlon at the Stockholm 1912 Olympic Games.

Langston Hughes is a very famous and popular name in American literature. Langston Hughes was a poet, playwright, and columnist. Hughes was born in Joplin Missouri on February 1st 1902. Langston’s first and most popular piece of work “The Negro Speak of Rivers” was published in a very popular black journal, which allowed the everyday person to read his work. Langston Hughes was very well known in the Harlem Renaissance.

Some of the greatest athletes of all time are African-American. But African American athletes should be know for more than just their accomplishments on the field or court, but more for what they have done to society. Many African-Americans athletes were great civil rights leaders. Many of them succeeded more as leaders than they did as athletes. One person who is very important to the African-American sports community is Jack Johnson.

1. Jim Thorpe;  has been characterized as one of the greatest athletes America has ever seen. Thorpe was born on May 28, 1887 in a single room cabin in small town Oklahoma, Prague. Jim attended school at an all indian establishment in Pennsylvania, although he began his athletic career somewhere else. He began playing football and running track.

This is a passage about one of the first basketball players to ever set foot on a basketball court. He was a great hero during the Civil Rights Movement. His name was a great inspiration to African Americans all over the U.S. during the movement. He was born on March 31, 1923 in a town that most of you are probably familiar with, Oakland, California.

Jesse Jackson, A Hero. How would you react if you were ever told you couldn’t sit in a specific place on the bus, or you had to drink from a different water fountain? What if you were bullied for having only one parent, or for your skin color? You’d probably be infuriated, or extremely sad or disappointed.

When thinking of black history month and how so many people fought for the rights of African American people, most of think of patriarchs like Dr. Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks, but how many of us know of the feats done by people like Claudette Colvin or Noble Drew Ali? Many people such as them go unheard of during this time of year and yet, they have accomplished such high feats considering what they went through. Being a minister and a politician who denounced racism like Henry McNeal Turner or the protests that prisoned Soledad Brothers began have not been recognized for so long and its time to remind people of what they have done. Many feats have been done, such as leading a revolt against a police station that refused to do the law services to a black family in need or the case of going against imperial influence from Britain. You can only wonder who else went unnoticed.

A man known as brother, father, soldier, outlaw, avenger of the poor; a man known as Jesse James was born on September 5, 1847 in Kearney, Missouri and assassinated only miles away in St. Joseph, Missouri on April 3, 1882 (Jesse James, Umsystem.edu). He was as notorious as the president was famous, but even with hundreds hoping for the bounty on his head, James was able to evade officials and remain a mystery. This man “was literally a legend” (Stiles, prologue). His crimes’ profit adds up to an estimated amount of $200,000 (Jesse James Biography, Biography.com), which today could be over 3 million dollars. The assassination of Jesse James is justified because he was not the hero people thought him to be and had murdered many who stood

“His stunning achievement of four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic games in Berlin has made him the best remembered athlete in Olympic history” (“Biography”). It is a myth that Hitler did not want to shake Owens’s hand because he is black. Besides

These are some of the athletes that were prominent during the Harlem Renaissance. Jesse Owens was an American track and field athlete and four time olympic gold medalist in the 1936 games in Berlin. The events he won gold in are the 100-meter dash, long jump, 200-meter dash and 400-meter relay. Some of the world records he set are running the 100-meter dash in 10.3 seconds, jumping 26 feet in long jump, doing the 200-meter dash in 20.7 seconds and the relay in 39.8 seconds.

James Mercer Langston Hughes was the first African American to achieve national prominence, and the figure of such stature in the black community. His influence and ideas were inescapable, as he saw himself as a poet for an entire nation. Hughes role model, Walt Whitman helped to give him the ideas of the optimistic vision of America and how to achieve and accomplish some of the things he did in his life. Langston Hughes inspired many people and expressed the African American spirt and soul in his works.

Born into a society of racial discrimination, Jack Roosevelt Robinson, known as Jackie Robinson, became an inspiring African American who stood up to racial hate and became the first black man to play major league baseball outside of a segregated black league (Biography.com). Robinson was born into a sharecropping family in Cairo, Georgia on January 31, 1919 (umass.edu). At 6 months of age, his father, Jerry Robinson, left the family in 1920. After this happening, his mother, Mallie Robinson, decided to move the family to a white neighborhood in Pasadena, California.” Manfred Weidhorn noted in his biography, Jackie Robinson,“Jackie was proud of his mother, who would not allow the white neighbors to drive her away or frighten her or mistreat her kids.

He was a trailblazer for African American athletes, breaking down barriers and paving the way for future generations. Robinson was also a humanitarian, supporting numerous charities and using his platform to advocate for civil rights. Despite Robinson's many successes, his personal

“A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.” (Jackie Robinson). Being born to sharecropper parents living in Georgia, Jackie Robinson faced racism and hatred early on. He overcame these adversities and became one of baseball 's most historic players for not only his lightning speed on the field, but his courage to break major league baseball 's color barrier. Jackie Robinson was the most influential sports athlete because he changed American society forever.

Langston Hughes was born February 1st, 1902 in Joplin, Missouri. In the roaring 20’s he started writing professionally and was essential in portraying black life in America. Hughes grew up in a time of social injustice involving the treatment of minorities (specifically African Americans). As his career went on the Harlem Renaissance became a major movement in which he was essential to.